Crashing
by robinh
Summary: Steve and Kono are forced to work together after Danny's car is damaged.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: All characters belong to their creators...

She blames it all on Danny. Seriously, if the guy would have taken the time to actually develop a spine, this whole ungodly and miserable situation would not have occurred. But it started with a minor car crash and escalated to... well into another crash altogether...

()()()()

"You are overreacting Daniel" They both walk into HQ, an angry and frustrated Danny followed by an exasperated and equally frustrated Steve.

"Overreacting? Really?" Danny shouts, not bothering to look back. The both of them come to a stop in front of the desk where Chin and Kono are crouching over some piece of data.

"He Wrecked the car!" Danny explains to the two, only partially interested, officers. "This crazy, reckless, over stimulated, uninhibited fucking super SEAL wrecked my car"

"I did not wreck the car" Steve reassures his two teammates as they shoot him curious looks.

Obviously they are not impressed by his declaration because their faces show a mix of skepticism and was it... a hardly contained amusement?

"Maybe I banged it a little bit" He adds solemnly when he isn't getting the desired reaction and when Danny shoots him a dirty look.

"A torn up front fender, a smashed headlight, a crashed carburetor, a misplaced front right wheel, and a devastating blow to the car's frame" He forcefully pins a piece of paper that is apparently the car shop's summery of the damage on the work desk.

Chin takes the piece of paper and studies it carefully looking pointedly at Steve. "Hey Brah, it looks like You've Wrecked the car".

"I knew it. I knew it. I knew it would happen!" Danny is pacing around the room dramatically.

"I'm sorry man" Steve starts towards his partner "I had to crash into the suspects' car or we would have lost them"

"You had to crash into the... " Danny is looking at him with astonishment "You _had_ to crash my car? who the fuck _has_ to crash a car? there is not a single scenario in the universe that makes you having to crash another man's car!"

"They were getting away, we had no lead on them, I made an executive decision..." Steve is trying to explain his logic.

"Wait!" Danny stops his pacing looking at Steve is sheer terror "You claim it was premeditated?"

"Of course it was premeditated. What other way did I have to stop them?" Steve is getting nervous now, Danny's reaction was not unanticipated but usually he had better luck smoothing things up with him. He knew how to apologize at the right time and with the right amount of sincerity, to shine him his innocent smile and to divert the conversation towards Grace - it was always doing the trick. Apparently Danny is not in the mood...

"Steven. Don't bullshit me. I've seen you drive". Danny's annoyance was elevating by the minute.

"What do you mean? You think It was an accident? don't be ridiculous Danno, I'm a very good driver" Steve reassures him.

"you are a terrible driver" Danny contradicts furiously. "You are completely irresponsible and impulsive and have no regard to safety rules and practically no common sense" Steve is surprised to see that Danny is being serious, he turns towards his other teammates with an amused expression only to find them looking expressionlessly back at him.

"Chin?"

"Well Brah, you can be... somewhat enthusiastic when you drive. And you are driving very fast" Chin is being honest as always but trying to be calm and fair with the quarrelling partners.

"See?" Danny marvels at his victory.

"Kono?" Steve is looking at her pointedly.

"Well... I don't think there is anything wrong with driving fast..." She is blushing seeing her boss' satisfied grin, but his happiness is premature.

"Don't pay attention to her." Danny is dismissing her violently "She is worse than you. Chin never lets her drive anywhere."

Kono only glares at him in irritation.

"Yes brah, why do you let him drive anyway?" Chin turns towards Danny.

"Why do I let him drive ?" Danny's voice comes pitchy with emotion. "Why do I let him drive ? Because this Neanderthal control freak, can't be separated from the steering wheel with a chainsaw. I let him drive because if I don't, he will be even more hyperactive and out of control than usual and I find that it is my moral duty to protect the good people of this godforsaken island from the consequences".

"Well no worries, you just gonna have to use the truck for a while" Kono is trying to be productive in concluding this stupid argument, because you know ,it seems to be going downhill and becoming a real fight, and she is the reasonable woman in this team, and her driving skills are already being questioned here, and she just knows that as things deteriorates, she would somehow be the one paying for this stupid mess. "Maybe Danny can drive Steve's truck so everybody's happy" she offers with a beaming smile.

"He is not driving my truck!" Steve declares immediately.

"I am not sitting in a car with him behind the wheel" Danny states in similar determination. "Or you for that matter" he turns towards Kono, "you rookie McGarrett-wanna-be" He shoots her an accusatory look.

OK. Downhill it is then.

"I will drive with Chin and you can go in Kono's car" Steve is taking charge now.

"Boss. I'm driving my bike" Chin reminds him gently. "I mean, you are welcome to ride on the back, but I doubt you'd like to explain this picture to the HPD cops when we arrive like this to a crime scene".

"Good point" Steve answers dryly. "OK. Danny, you can take Kono's car. Kono you're with me".

Great! She knew it.

Don't get her wrong, she has nothing against working with Steve. Really. Well, nothing professional anyway. Because, really he is very capable and stuff, and he works hard and there are probably a lot of things she could learn from watching him work up close. It's just that "up close" part that she has a problem with. Well, maybe a problem is a little bit strong. A concern really. That's it! a concern. A really small, totally understandable concern of being too close to him for extended periods of time with all the, you know, muscles and the shooting and the running and the fast driving and the way he, you know, looks and smiles and this uncontrolled tendency of his to take off his shirt all the time. You know, those parts that actually makes her mouth dry and her heart pump and makes this familiar feeling at the pit of her stomach. Totally understandable and completely logical, under the circumstances. Except she doubts if Chin and Danny have the same symptoms in this regard, so yes, there might be a problem there in the big scheme of things.

()()()

They have a new case. A body of a 40ish year old man was found in the docks in a progressed state of decomposition. She drives to collect Danny from his home and he forces her to change places immediately. She suspects that he is just trying to prove his point but when she suggests that to him, she finds herself on the receiving end of a long and elaborate monologue about the appropriateness of his actions in the face of the irresponsible and unjustified behavior practiced by her, by Steve and by the entire Island's society as a whole. She is tuning out after several minutes but she thinks she hears him using quite a complicated metaphor involving an iguana and an elephant. She is aware of the fact that Steve was trained to endure torture, but she seriously thinks that probably she underestimated the exact level of his endurance.

()()()

After inspecting the body and the crime scene Steve starts delegating the assignments. The body is unrecognizable in its stage of decomposition and no wallet or identifications were found. It's Danny's and Chin's job to go over the crime scene, Steve and Kono will focus on the body and its identity.

They drive to the ME's office. She is seriously thinking she's losing her mind because she's starting to miss Danny's rants a little bit. For fuck's sake there are certain rules of civilization that makes it mandatory to communicate even for a little bit out of sheer politeness, right? She would hold Steve's disturbing silence to the fact that he is driving 90miles per hour on a regular busy street, and probably needs to be very focused and can't risk averting his concentration from the road and those, you know, ridiculous cars that seems to be trying to hit him in every intersection, but sadly she doubts this is the case.

"So... what's new?" She tries to make it sound effort less, even though she feels the sweat trickling down her spine.

"What do you mean?" He eyes her suspiciously.

She can't blame him, a stupid answer to a stupid question. Only she actually can blame him, so she does.

"What's new in life? how's it going?" She continues, smiling. She will not be intimidated, you know, much...

He looks at her with a blank expression for a second and almost hits a cyclist on the right side.

"What are you doing?" He asks her, genuinely interested.

"Nothing. Just making conversation" she shines him a wide smile.

"Why?" He seems intrigued by her actions for some reason.

"That's what normal people do when they find themselves in each other's company" She explains patiently.

"I don't" he states in finality and averts his eyes back to the road.

Yes, she's pretty sure normal is a basic requirement in this scenario.

"You talk to Danny..." She says brightly, not giving up, because a. she is not the type and b. there are still at least 25 uncomfortable minutes to the ME's office.

"No I don't" He contradicts thoughtfully. "I mean, obviously there is a vocalized exchange of words between us during our rides together, but I hardly think listening to him ranting about – well, everything basically, like Hawaii, the heat, the ocean, and specifically me - can be considered talking".

"What would you consider it?" She asks in mild shock from the whole paragraph that was verbalized by him unexpectedly.

He pauses for a minute, and actually stops at a red light for the first time during this ride "I would consider it as listening, averting and deflecting" He seems happy with this answer as a smug smile appears on his face. God she loves his smile. "It's nice to have some peace and quiet for a change" he adds pointedly ending the discussion. She glances at her watch, 23 minutes left for the ME's office.

"Don't touch it" He orders 5 minutes later when she extends her hand towards the Radio dial.

She is bringing her Ipod tomorrow. Uncivilized Neanderthal prick.

()()()

They get to the ME's office and Max is busy taking away body parts and samples.

"Cause of death is 2 bullets to the base of the skull, shot from a close range" he says to them not bothering to look up.

"Sounds like an execution" Steve mumbles.

"also, his hands were tied" Kono gesturing towards the victim's arms.

"Very good officer Kalakaua" Max is smiling at her "As well as multiple cuts and bruises most

probably done post mortem. I am still looking into the specifics of those. I will also complete

the tox screen and forward the results as soon as I can" Max declares, pulling the liquefied

victim's heart in one sharp movements causing Kono to retreat hurriedly while Steve looks

even more transfixed at the gruesome image.

They stop at the lab on the way out. The victims clothes and the rest of the material found on the body is examined by Charlie Fong so they decide to take a look.

"Hey Kono !" Charlie is beaming at her from behind his desk. She is a little uncomfortable with his heart warming welcome, but sue her, it's not her fault they all like her here. It's also not her fault that they find Steve to be unpleasant and intimidating. She secretly suspects that it's got to do with the fact that he was his high school's quarterback and they were all nerds and computers geeks, or maybe it's just Steve.

"Hi Charley" She replies, genuinely happy to see a friendly face after her morning with Mr. tall, dark and uptight over there.

"Do you have anything yet?" Steve is coming to stand between them, arms crossed on his chest with his familiar interrogation room attitude. What the fuck brah?

"Not a lot" Charlie is shooting her a cautious look "but it looks like there are some residues on the clothes. I'm not sure he was killed in the docks, I think the body was carried from somewhere else"

"Any ideas?" Kono is smiling encouragingly at the poor lab technician, because this unexplained obnoxious attitude of Steve's is completely unnecessary.

"I'm not sure yet. looks like an oil of some sort" He turns towards the microscope and invite Kono to bow her head and look through the lenses, and she does with great proximity to his own.

"It looks like machine oil, not a natural oil, do you see the way it's..." He can't finish his thought as Steve's loud cough makes the both of them turn their heads towards him.

"OK. I'll get on it" Charlie is rushing to end this encounter "Kono, I'll call you with the results as soon as I have it" he calls after her when she joins her boss on the other side of the desk.

"You'll call me." Steve orders behind his back as they both walk outside, Kono is sending Charlie an apologetic smile.

()()()()()

They drive back to HQ, again in silence. Kono apparently has had enough of his shit. She is furiously looking out the window and drumming her fingers on the dashboard.

"Stop that!"

Make me! Please Make my day and make me! "Stop what?"

"The tapping. It sounds like a broken typewriter."

"You know that it was completely uncalled for right?" She says in irritation.

"Asking you to stop? Sorry. Go on, knock yourself out" He shrugs.

"You know what I mean"

He looks at her with one eyebrow raised. "I know you all think I have Ninja like superpowers and stuff, but let me assure you I have no idea what you mean".

"The way you treat the people in the lab" She doesn't want to go there, and you know, hurt his feelings or criticize him, but he is being obnoxious as usual so she decides she _will_ go there after all.

"I have no idea what you are talking about" He says again, turning back to the road.

She would call him a liar, but with his poor excuse of intrapersonal communication skills he might be telling the truth here.

"The way you intimidate everyone there. And the way you talk to them in an abrupt and harsh manner. I mean, those guys are nice, we work with them every day, you should treat them with respect".

He pauses for a couple of minutes, and for a second she imagines that he is regarding her statement thoughtfully and maybe she will have a breakthrough here.

"You mean Charlie" He sates dryly, looking at her accusingly.

Breakthrough her ass.

"I mean with respect" She spits. You stupid ape, because you know, she does mean Charlie. Charlie Fong, with his quiet smile and his brown eyes and the way he is looking admiringly at her. Because She sure does deserve a normal guy that will ogle her, and will think she is cute and pretty, instead of this unapproachable, cold hearted sexy as hell, don't know she's alive super navy SEAL of a boss she's fixated on.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN**: Thank you all for your kind words. My thanks to Sidalee for the tech support, and thanks to my darling D.

Max's and Charlie's assessment was that the oil on the clothes and the cuts on the body came from a ship's propeller, so this is the reason the 4 teammates are currently standing on the dock looking gloomily at the 25 ships docking in the pier.

"How do we know that it's one of those ships? " Danny asks looking skeptically at the long line of boats.

"We don't" Steve is leaning forward examining the water.

"So you plan to check each boat? what do you think you'll find there?"

"I'll know when I'd find it" Steve is still squatting on the pavement with a faint smile on his lips.

"You crazy man" Danny looks at him incredulously "You just can't wait to jump in the fucking water can't you?"

"It's filthy" Kono mumbles looking at the dark and oily water.

"Better get ready then" Steve stands up from his position walking determinedly towards his car.

"The water is pitch black, you can't see anything there" Danny looks hopelessly at his partner "It can't be safe"

Kono looks at Danny who shoots her a worried look, she looks at Chin who is only shrugging his shoulders. Yeah, she's fucked and they all know it.

"I guess I'll be going too then" She turns defeated towards her car.

She opens her car's trunk producing her scuba gear. She started carrying it around along with a change of clothes since she started working with Lieutenant commander Steve McGarrett. With him, things tends to be... well... interesting, and dirty, and more times than not, an attire had to be changed. She is not complaining, not by a long shot. But she has to admit, she could think of other wet, dirty and naked things she prefers to do with her over stimulating boss ...

It's not an easy dive so Steve is busy explaining the equipment and helps her strap on the oxygen tank and check her mask. She tries to stay calm as he slides his fingers carefully around her back and chest securing the straps. When he pulls the buckles on her upper chest, right under her clavicles she is quite sure he can feel her rapid heart rate, and while he is concentrated on her scuba gear, her eyes are scanning his face and his beautiful lips, and her mouth gets dry with her growing excitement. He explains again how to operate everything, and she truly does try to concentrate and to listen to everything he says, but the excited and exhilarated way in which he describes the diving protocol and the progress plan is so sweet and endearing, and it reminds her of the way she feels about surfing and the ocean and water and without a warning, a lust filled grunt escapes her mouth before she is able to stop it. He looks at her in bewilderment stopping midsentence, and he is about to ask what the hell is wrong with her, especially with this glint in her eyes and the beautiful blush spreading on her face, and his hands are still holding her chest straps, and they are so close, but he misses the chance because Danny, which she is definitely going to kill one of these days for destroying her life, approaches and yells at them to get a move on and asks if they are seriously waiting for the tide to set in, in order to raise the risk level, just for fun.

"You're all set" Steve is saying, looking at her with deep blue eyes and a smile on his face.

"Let's go" She answers a little bit shaky to her liking "After you boss".

So they jump into the filthy water. And she can practically feel the oily goo accumulating on her skin and in her hair, and it's darker than she would have expected so Steve is holding her hand in the water as they go together ship by ship and boat by boat with the big silent sea engulfing them. She knows she has a poor excuse of a social life, and she knows she is practically a slave to her work and her team, but even though it's a work thing, and it's definitely not a date, and spending this afternoon with Steve is purely professional, for the life of her she can't remember a single date she had that can actually top this.

()()()

They end up finding some remains of fabrics stuck in one of the boat's propellers and they both surface from the water triumphantly giving the remains to Chin to take back to the lab. As they stand there dripping black and oily water on the pavement Danny is going to find what he can on the owner of the ship.

She tiredly examines her filthy arms and legs glancing at Steve who seems to be unperturbed by the situation, and she follows him back to his truck watching him pulling his wet scuba gear off, standing there half naked with his shorts clinging to his, well, everything shorts could cling to. She can't help her bodily response to seeing his wet back and that familiar turmoil in her lower belly comes back again.

"Take it off" He tells her as he climbs into the driver seat , but under the scuba gear she has only her underwear, and she thinks that it might be counterproductive to be sitting there together half naked, as she really fights for her sanity here. So she waves him off and turns to the passenger side sitting there keeping her hands crossed on her shivering body, keeping her eyes straight ahead and keeping her mind on last night's football game lineup, or else she might, you know, jump him or something, and his driving is bad as it is, so safety comes first.

They drive back to HQ to take a shower and to wait for Danny and Chin to come back with the evidences and it's quiet and awkward again, but this time he is practically naked besides her so her previous frustrated assessments of him are almost a mild reproach in comparison to her currently hate filled curses. She decides to actually defy him and turn the radio on when he suddenly stops the car and when she looks at him she sees him gazing into the big blue ocean.

"Lets get ourselves cleaned a little bit" He says, and before she has time to respond he is already out the door running towards the sea.

She watches him jumping into the waves and start swimming and she can't say no to a thing like that so she runs too, and dive clothes and all into the big blue.

The water is clear and bright and the salty water cleans her body and her soul and without even thinking she is already peeling off her dirty clothes and throwing them to the shore remaining only in her underwear. She dives and jumps out, and swims around and after a while she looks around and finds Steve bobbing in the water next to her with a weird smile on his face.

She smiles back at him, because she is always happy when she is in the ocean, and she thinks he feels the same. And for the first time this week, all annoyance and frustration are gone. And it's a good thing that her face is all wet from the sea and that she is squinting at the sunset, because being here with her two favorite things in the world the ocean and Steve McGarrett, she thinks that she might actually cry.

()()()

"I can't do it anymore" She takes a big gulp of beer from her bottle and bangs her head on the table.

"You are overreacting" Kally tries to console her "I'm sure it's not that bad"

"Oh I'm really not overreacting and it is _definitely_ that bad" She grimaces at the memory of the last three days.

"Come on Kono, so you get to spend some time with your boss, I thought you said he's a really great guy"

"He _is_ a great guy" Kono breathes painfully "He is a really really super great wonderful stand up one of a kind kind of guy, and he's super hot and super sexy and brave and strong and he is my fucking boss and he has a girlfriend and I think I'm going crazy because every time I see him I get this giddy feeling and I feel like throwing up, and yesterday when we were lining up to break into a suspect's house and he stood in front of me, I found myself trying to smell his neck, and this irrational behavior of a dog in heat in the middle of a job will eventually get someone killed"

"You need to get laid" Kally notifies her helpfully, and Kono sending her a dirty look, because Kally is probably right and she actually does need to get laid, before someone will get hurt, so she's actually only trying to do the right thing here and get everyone home in one piece like the good cop that she is.

()()()

"No"

"Why not?"

"I don't want to"

"I can see that, but Why not?"

"It's none of your business".

"What's going on?"

"Nothing's going on"

"So why don't you want to go on a double date with me and Gabby? I thought you liked Gabby"

"I do like Gabby, It got nothing to with it"

"And Catherine is in town for the week, so what's your problem?"

"Let it go Danny, please"

Danny shoots him a questioning look

"You're not going to let it go aren't you?" Steve is stating the obvious crossing his arms on his chest and looking pointedly at his partner.

"You know me so well..." Danny smiles at him. "What's going on?"

"Nothing. I just don't like double dates"

"You like dates don't you?" Danny is sitting on the back of one of the chairs in Steve's office practically blocking his way out.

"Not particularly, no. I don't do dates actually"

"What exactly do you call it when you meet Catherine and you go out to eat together?" Danny asks innocently.

"We don't actually go out for dinners" Steve answers truthfully, because they really don't.

"OK." Danny decides to go along with this "What do you call it when you stay home and eat together?"

"mmmm...We don't actually do this either"

"Eat together or staying home together?"

"mmmm...Neither actually"

"Steven?"

"Yes Daniel?"

"Have you and Catherine broken up?"

"What do you mean?"

"Are you still seeing her?"

"Seeing her as..."

"She dumped you." Danny's voice is a little louder than desired and Steve is looking cautiously around HQ, relieved to see that both Kono and Chin are not in yet.

"I knew it would happen eventually" Danny is ecstatic with this new revelation "What happened? she finally found out how completely crazy you are and decided she wanted a more reliable person as a boyfriend?"

"Something like that..." Steve decides to adopt Danny's theory, because honestly it will be easier to let him jump to his own conclusions and to assume that finally Catherine found him to be less than perfect boyfriend material. It will also be easier for _him_ to understand, because he actually _did_ try to explain to himself what the hell happened yesterday when he came to pick her up from her hotel, and that weird sensation he got when she opened the door, the one that caused him to step backwards and to look mortified at her for a few seconds. And when he finally came back to his senses, to take her by the hand and sit with her on the bed explaining that he's really sorry, and that it's really not her - it's him but he wants out. Now. Bfore he'll make an irreversible mistake. And he wasn't even lying because it was really his fault for looking at her and seeing a certain Hawaiian beauty with brown eyes and two dimples and a soft and sensual voice that makes his knees weak. And it's kind of shitty of him to find out about it now during their evening together when she came all the way from the Philippines to see him, but that's the god damned truth. So yeah, he's fucked, because it's morning now and Kono will be here in a few minutes and Danny's car is still in the shop, so it's gonna be a very long day today, and he will go have some water now because regretfully it's still too early for alcohol.

()()()

The case is going well and looks like they are going to wrap it up soon. The victim is identified as one of the crew in a smuggling ship so Chin and Kono are taking care of the warrants and the search of the ship, so they are out of the office today. Danny is spending his morning at the docks again interviewing the security guards there and Steve is in a meeting with the governor.

All and all a very nice and relaxed morning, not challenging at all. Thank god, because she hardly slept last night. Went with Kally to a bar somewhere and drank 4 shots of tequila as soon as she got there. Told Kally she is going to sleep with the first guy who buys her a drink. Unfortunately the first guy who offers her a drink is a girl, and looking around she suddenly realizes that most of the bar is filled with girls anyway and she starts to laugh because it's a really nice bar and the music is great and the girls are really nice and they are all dancing happily and smiling at her, and life could be so simple if she could forget about her arrogant shirtless boss and have a good time with those girls, but it's the last time she lets Kally pick an unknown bar at random, because it's totally not what she had in mind when she decided to go out on a workday and get hammered.

She ends up letting the girl buy her a drink, and she buys her one in return, and they really have a nice time, so she tells the girl and all her friends how horrible her life is, and how hot and obnoxious her boss is, and by closing time she is so drunk she loses basic motor skills, and Kally is nowhere to be seen, probably went home with one of the girls, the traitorous bitch. So the nice girl who bought her a drink offers to call someone to pick her up and she tells her to dial Chin's number, but maybe the girl is also drunk because she completely screws up the names in the contact list and ends up calling Steve by mistake, and 15 minutes later he pulls up in his pickup truck in front of her and in front of the curious group of girls that gathered around her.

He gets out of the truck and looks at her with a puzzled look, it's the middle of the night and he is dressed in black long sweatpants and a very tight blue tee shirt. His hair is ruffled and he is unshaven and looks delicious. By the quiet that suddenly ensues around her she understands that the impression he makes on her new friends is considerable.

"Good evening" She says at last, trying to be polite and maintain the residual dignity she has.

He only raises his eyebrow at her and crosses his arms over his chest.

"Thank you for coming" She offers as she tries to get up from the curb where she sits, and wobbles a little as she does.

He opens his mouth to say something, thinks better of it and keeps his silence, staring at her skeptically.

"Are you sure it's Ok?" Her new friend asks her cautiously. It's understandable, as Steve looks pissed off and intimidating, and he doesn't say a word, and being all together... well... typical Steve.

"She'll be fine" Steve declares tersely, and opens the truck's door.

"It's fine" Kono smiles apologetically, like she does every time she's with Steve and there are you know...people around. "Thanks for the drinks, I had a great time. Good night" she mumbles to everyone as she drags herself to the passenger seat.

He climbs besides her in the driver's seat and starts the engine before she even closes the door properly.

"_What the hell are you doing?_" They are both saying it at the same time.

"What do you mean?" He looks at her incredulously "_I'm_ not the one getting drunk in the middle of the week with a bunch of strangers and have to be picked up from some sleazy bar in the middle of the night"

He has a point there, but fuck him, so has she. Unfortunately, it's not only the dizziness that she has, and the nausea that exacerbates with every violent turn he makes on the road which makes it hard to explain what she was actually trying to do there.

"If you have a problem with it, you shouldn't have come to pick me up. And once you _did_ come, you should keep your mouth shut about it. And when you meet nice people that actually tried to help me out and keep me company, you'd better be polite" You fucking Neanderthal she adds in her head, because although sometimes Danny finds the most appropriate descriptions, she is still much too civilized to say it to his face.

It works apparently, because he keeps his mouth shut the entire ride to her home, and when they get there, he helps her out of the car, and into her house, and makes sure she collapses on the bed and not on the floor, and when she lies there dizzily she feels that he takes off her shoes and covers her with the blanket, turning off the light and quietly getting out of the house.

In the morning, he is with the governor first thing, but she finds on her desk 3 big cups of orange juice and some Tylenols. It's not really an apology, but she suspects it's the best she can hope for.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN:** Thank you all for your support and kind words. And again, thanks to my darling D.

* * *

She blames it on Steve this time. It's not her fault that the suspect decides to run with the stolen artifact. And it's not her fault that she and Steve are the only ones close enough, so they run after him, and he takes a big jump and climbs a container, and he almost loses them, but they are both running alongside the rows of containers stationed on the dock. And it's not her fault that when he reaches the end of the row he jumps again and falls into the drainage canal with all the oils and grease with the artifact.

And it's not her fault that it's a very important piece of art that belongs to the island and when Steve is jumping in after him and the suspect hits his head with a crowbar and try to drown him she has to jump in as well to save his sorry ass.

By the end of it the suspect is handcuffed and the artifact is safe and Steve and Kono are so filthy it's awful. She feels like she has grease everywhere and she even tastes some of it when she opens her mouth.

Danny and Chin arrive at the scene looking at them in astonishment.

"You need counseling" Danny is saying it with disgust "I'll even pay".

He looks at Kono who is trying not to puke from the horrible smell.

"And now you had to drag the rookie down with you" He looks at her shaking his head in reproach "You had to pick this lunatic as a role model didn't you? What the hell were you thinking jumping in the filth after him? Do you want to be like him? a misguided missile with a suicide wish?"

She looks at Danny blankly because she really doesn't know what she wants at first, but then it occurs to her "I want to get into the shower!" she declares. "Now!".

When they get in the truck she can see him looking from her to the car seat with almost tangible pain. "You want me to sit in the back?" She asks dryly, but her tone probably has enough warning in it, so he waves her in. As they sit in the car he murmurs something she can't hear properly and she suspects that it might be for the best.

They drive towards Steve's house because it's closer and she is not waiting a single moment if it's not necessary before getting into the shower.

They start by washing themselves outside with the water hose, and as she points the hose towards Steve's body he takes off his shoes and shirt and pants down to his underwear. She is trying to be very thorough, for hygienic purposes of course, pointing the stream of water slowly over every part of his anatomy, so she's really not to blame here when they accidently catch each other's eyes and there is an unexpected sensual connection between them. He slides his hand through his hair and looks at her with his blue cobalt eyes, and she has to gasp with the sudden warm feeling she gets in the pit of her stomach.

He gets closer to her, taking the hose and holding it above her. With his other hand, he helps her get rid of the more obvious residues in her hair, and holds her hand as she slowly discards her top and her jeans, standing in front of him in her small bikini, the one she surfed in this morning.

They are very close to one another, and the water in the hose is cold, and she is shivering, but she is not 100 percent sure it's from the cold water. Their ragged breaths intermingle and it's now or never, but then she gets a grip and runs inside to the bathroom grabbing her bag with the change of clothes.

()()()

She is sitting at the kitchen counter all clean and tidy after her shower, waiting for Steve and eating a yogurt. After their little encounter outside with the water hose, oh god...that sounds so dirty... She tries to gain back her composure and take everything light and easy.

But when he comes down the stairs wearing his regular cargo pants and a tight black tee shirt looking dazzling with his wet hair, she all of a sudden finds it difficult to breath. He steps into the kitchen and sees her sitting there at the counter and walks slowly towards her, maintaining eye contact all the time. She thinks she should say or do something to stop him, but something prevents her from doing it, and before she knows it, she finds him standing between her legs and his hands take a hold on the counter on both sides. There is a tiny voice inside her head telling her this is a bad idea, and that this is her fucking boss, and that she is being crazy here risking her career and her reputation and that it will never end well, but that tiny voice is being drowned by the louder voice of the pulse beating in her ears, and they are both gone when Steve's breath tickles her left cheek.

She can't move, her breath coming out shallow and ragged, and her eyes are glued to his mouth. When he finally closes the distance between them and crashes his lips to hers, she feels as though her heart might stop.

She puts her arms around his neck, opening her mouth to his penetrating tongue, and as she holds him close, skimming her hands over his body trying to touch every single muscle in his arms and back, he trails his lips down her jaw and her neck, biting her shoulder. The room is silent and the only sounds are their fast breaths and the sound of their lips meeting. Before she knows it he takes her top off, and does the same with his tee shirt, and all the things she thought and imagined about having sex with Steve, come to life.

It's very intense, like everything else Steve does. And he is in control all the time, and it's good because she is only half coherent right now, and the things this man is doing to her with his hands and with his mouth should require medical clearance, if you ask her. It's so hurried and desperate, that they remain half dressed, and she is still at the counter, while he worships her with his mouth, well... everywhere. He is so strong she has to lie back and hold the wall for support, and when he finally moves into her she reaches her climax fast and then he angles his hips and groans when he joins her. She can only gasp and dig her fingernails into his back, drawing blood no doubt, before screaming his name.

After she is all spent, he looks into her eyes, kisses her lips gently one more time, and helps her down off the counter so they can sit on the floor with her in his lap. He leans his head on the cupboard, his eyes closed, and his arms are holding her tightly against his bare chest as he slowly strokes her hair and she buries her face in the crook of his neck, breathing in his scent.

()()()

He takes her home after that, because they are still in the middle of a work day, and her clothes are all ruined and stained with sweat and the top is stretched out and there is a tear in her jeans, so she must change.

They cover the filthy seats of the car with some old carpet Steve finds in his garage, and they are very busy and mechanical about it so there is no time to talk about the new development in their relationship.

They drive to her home in silence and for once she is grateful for Steve's communication disability.

When they reach her home there is a black car parked in front of it, and someone is waiting near her door.

"You have company" Steve points, keeping his eyes on the strange figure and setting his hand on his gun. It is an older Hawaiian woman with a fierce look and low patience. she looks completely harmless, but Kono knows better, and the fact that Steve sees her as a threat and reaches for his gun is yet another proof of his good instincts, because Mrs. Kalakaua is a force to be reckoned with.

"Settle down sailor, It's my mother" She says. "Don't worry, she won't hurt you" she adds, but she is not convinced this is true.

"Really?" Steve is suddenly in a high alert mode "I should go say hello" He says as he opens the door.

"What the hell are you doing?" She grabs his arm desperately "Don't get out of the car!".

"I just want to say hello" He looks at her perplexed "I thought you wanted me to be more polite".

"Not with my mother you don't" She orders. "Trust me, my mother is not an easy person. She is married to a cop, all her brothers are cops and she is highly suspicious and ..." Kono glances desperately at Steve. "She can always tell when something is off or strange, she can actually smell it on me"

He pauses for a minute and she thinks he might listen to her for once so she lets go of his arm, but that is a terrible mistake because as soon as she loosens her grip on him he is out of the car and when she tries to get a hold of him again he leans toward the window and says "That's really unfortunate, because right now, you smell like sex".

()()()

It's like seeing an accident happen before her eyes. Everything is moving in slow motion. She watches with alarm as Steve approaches her mother wearing his trademark grin. Yeah right, as if her mother is going to fall for his charms that easily. Then, surprise surprise, she almost misses it, but her mother makes a hardly noticeable change in her posture, reaches for her hair as if to make sure it is still in place, and there's that small fraction of a moment when her eyes brightly shine in appreciation. It's unbelievable because her mother can stare down a snake if needed, and now she is almost taken off guard by this pretty boy? AAARRRRHHHH no wonder he is so vain.

However, her mother is not just like every other women, and after her momentary setback she is back in business. When Kono finds the courage to step out of the car and join them they are already deep in a silent battle of wills, and she should have brought popcorn and sit down to watch, and maybe sold some tickets, because this is going to get interesting, and possibly bloody. soon.

"Hi Mom" she jumps in smiling and kisses her mother's cheek. They are in the same height and with the same figure, and they are both beautiful and strong and Steve is wondering if Kono's mother has dimples too.

"Who is your friend?" Her mother who has seen Steve at least a dozen times on TV asks in a warning tone looking at him in concentration, not missing a beat.

"Steve McGarrett" Steve extends his hand and smiles "it's a pleasure to meet you".

She lets him stand there with his hand stretched out just a second longer than necessary before she reluctantly reaches out with her hand and shakes his.

She can see by Steve's expression that he is mildly surprised by the strength of her mother's handshake, and braces herself for the unavoidable collision.

"Commander McGarrett..." Her mother drags the words out as if she had just remembered his name from somewhere. Probably from_ every_ Saturday night dinner they had since she joined 5-0 when Steve's tales were told by her and by Chin in front of the entire family. "The army guy right?"

"The Navy actually" Steve states dryly, and she can see how offended he is by this precise dig. "Navy. Right. Same difference..." Her mother - who was a sailor on a battle ship 30 years ago and who actually slugged a man in a pub once for making the same mistake - answers with a shrug.

"We were just on our way back to work. We solved another case today" Kono tries to alleviate the tension a little bit by reminding them of her existence.

Her mother is not impressed but at least it makes her turn her gaze towards Kono for a second.

"What happened to your clothes?" She asks suddenly as she sees her daughter's appearance.

"N..nothing."Kono answers hesitantly and in an act of poor judgment glances towards Steve. It's a subtle glance but it's enough to make her mother suspicious.

"What are you two up to?" She asks warningly, looking at the both of them pointedly. And when Kono can't help but blushing, Steve only stands there saying nothing. Not helpful at all.

"Kono. Go get changed." Her mother orders still looking at Steve with her unnerving cold gaze "I will keep your boss here company".

When she turns to leave, Kono thinks her mother probably enunciates the words _your boss_ a little bit, but she can't swear to it. She tries to make it as quick as she can.

"How old are you commander?" Mrs. Kalakaua asks, crossing her arms over her chest.

"36" Steve imitates her stance.

"Kono is 24"

"I know. I read her file".

"Are you married?"

"No"

"A girlfriend?"

"No"

"Are you gay?"

"Probably not"

"Do you always take my daughter away in the middle of a work day to have sex with you?"

"..."

"Don't lie to me..." She warns, taking a small step towards him.

"Not always, no." He answers nonchalantly "Today was the first time actually"

"You are her boss you know "

"I know." Steve looks at her in earnest. "And she is 12 years younger than me, and she is a woman and in this thing..." He can't say the word relationship without sounding too much like Danny so he deflects, "The risk she is taking is greater than mine" He pauses for a moment. "I have tried to avoid it for a long time"

"Chin ho thinks highly of you"

"Thank you"

"But not so highly as prevent him from using his shotgun"

"I realize that"

"And Kono has a lot of cousins on this Island"

"I know"

"And if you hurt her, after they're finished with you, if needed, I will shoot you myself"

"Understood"

Kono is practically running out of the house to join them. She somewhat relieved by seeing them both alive and unscarred, but when she gets out there, it is again to tense silence between them.

"All ready" She is all smiles and easiness "Sorry Mom, we really have to go now. Is there anything you need before we go?"

"Never mind" Her mother is looking at her reassuringly "We can talk about it later. Maybe on Saturday when you and Steve come to dinner"

"We will?" She asks stupidly. Because obviously while she was cleaning up, her impulsive lover has come to an unfortunate understanding with her mother. The bastard.

"We'll be there" Steve answers without looking at Kono. For god's sake, now she has two overprotecting dictators pushing her around.

"See you Saturday then" Her mother kisses her affectionately and turns towards her car.

They are still standing there looking at the retreating car when Kono turns accusingly towards him. "What the fuck brah?"

"Hey, don't look at me" He shrugs "I'm not saying no to this woman. The first thing you learn as a navy SEAL is to pick your battles"

"Coward!" She shouts at him when he walks back to the car. It's a little bit childish she knows, but if the both of them are going to treat her like a child and make all the decisions for her, she feels she's entitled to some freedom of expression here.

"It will be fine" He reassures her when they sit in the car. She is not convinced. She is sitting there with her arms crossed, obviously annoyed, and he knows that this is the last chance he has to contain the situation. That his next move will determine whether this afternoon will be classified as a onetime thing between two consenting adults or as the beginning of... well... something else. So he looks at her in concentration trying to think of all the different scenarios, and calculate the casualty level, and map the escape routes and to analyze the situation in a realistic and strategic way, but it all blows to the wind when she is absentmindedly sends a gentle hand and moves a strand of black hair behind her ear. And when he looks, there is a long curl that goes down along her neck and rests against her collarbone, and at this point he simply has no other option but to lean into her and gently pull her head towards him and to kiss her softly and lovingly. He is taking his time, and the kiss is slow and adoring and she is right there with him, cupping his cheek with her hand. It feels so sweet and tender and overwhelming, and when they stop to catch their breath he looks at her with so much love, while her eyes glow with the same light towards him. After a long minute when they just sit there looking at each other, he turns his head forward, starts the car and quietly says "Lets go to work baby". So they do.

()()()

"Did you miss me?"

"I missed the car"

"I know you missed the car. I missed it too. I asked if you missed _me_."

"Did you miss me?"

"I asked you first."

"So what? What is this kindergarten? What does it matter who asked first?"

"Why don't you want to answer me?"

"I have no problem answering you"

"..."

"What?"

"Answer me. Did you miss me?"

"You know what, I probably did miss you, but I think I just got over it"

"Admit it, you were miserable without me"

"You must be right, because I also feel quite miserable now..."

"Liar. Why can't you admit that I am a big part of your life and that you missed me and that driving around with Kono for a week was simply not the same"

"It was definitely not the same. There, I totally admit it".

"So what did you do together?"

"What do you mean?" Steve looks startled at Danny almost missing a left turn and making it at the last moment almost tipping the car upside down.

"Look out you crazy lunatic! Are you trying to get us killed?" Danny is straightening his tie trying to get back to his train of thoughts. "What do you mean what do I mean ?"

"We didn't do anything together. We just worked"

"You just worked?"

"On cases. 5-0 cases. Like we do here in 5-0 from time to time. You must have come across some cases since you've been here".

"And what did you do between slaving and sweating over the enormous amount of 5-0 cases?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well. What did you talk about? "

"Mmmm...nothing really. It was much more quiet than with you".

"You are completely damaged you know? I bet you forced her to sit in silence the entire time"

"I wouldn't say I _forced_ her..."

"Did you answer her?

"..."

"I mean with actual words rather than grunts and noises..."

"Mostly. Probably not. She kept telling me I'm being impolite and tried to make me be nicer to people"

"Ah! the innocence of youth..." Danny sighs "Always sure they can change the world"

"..."

"Anyway. I know that you missed me. And I can tell Kono had a hard time"

"Really? you can tell Kono was unhappy with me?" Steve is smiling mockingly at his partner. "How can you tell?"

"Well, first of all I know you. And second of all, I saw you two this morning when we got the car back and she realized she is about to be separated from you again. You two looked very satisfied at this. Kono was practically giddy, and you... well, you said good morning to the security guard at HQ, that is practically being ecstatic in the Steve McGarrett scale of happiness. Why? is there anything else you two should be happy about?"

Steve pulls the car in front of the HQ and turns to Danny "Nothing I can think of. You are very observant Daniel".

"I am" Danny opens the door and starts to step outside. He pauses for a second before his face lights up and he bends down towards Steve who is still sitting there "This is why I think I should remind you two to be careful, and practice safe sex. And by _be careful_ I mean, be careful of Chin. He has a shotgun".

Yeah. That's a fair point. He should remind Kono of that. And tell her that Danny knows. And make a stop at the pharmacy on the way home.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN**: Thank you all for your support and your interest in this fic. Initially it was supposed to be a 3 chapters fic only, but I am trying to see if there is a point in continuing it further. I tried to put in some ideas from the reviews I got, and I will be happy to get more ideas like that. And **definitely** Kono's mom is going to make another appearance, soon, and hopefully a longer one this time. Tell me what you think.

Thanks again to my darling D.

* * *

She blames this one on Chin. Definitely. Chin. Which is weird, because she practically believes Chin is perfect, and probably invented sliced bread or something as important. However,of all the shitty things that happened to her, and of all the misery her teammates have gotten her through, he is probably gonna take first prize for this one. So there. She's probably growing up, and finally awakening from her childish admiration of him, because next time she sees him, she might shoot him or something.

()()()

They have a new case. A kidnapping case. The victim is the daughter of a very rich couple, friends of the governor. So they are on the case because there's election coming up soon and the governor feels that he will find much better use for the 5 million dollars the kidnappers want in exchange for the girl. They are having their regular meeting, assessing the information and forming a plan, when it happens.

She doesn't realize it initially, because often Steve assigns her on the more sophisticated computerized work, but when Steve says something about going to check out the site of the kidnapping, and when the site of the kidnapping appears to be a sleazy club in the middle of the clubbing scene of Honolulu, and when the footage from the security camera shows an image of a tall blond guy with a spider tattoo on the back of the neck approaching the girl, they all know what is the obvious course of action. Steve looks at the footage, and she can feel the excitement rising in anticipation of the upcoming job, but when he turns towards her, to ask her to get ready for a night in the club, no doubt, she hears Chin's very gentle but very distinct cough. Before she knows it, Steve hesitates for a second, and assigns her to the computer, and it's Danny and him who will be going to canvass the club instead. There is not even a chance to discuss it, because he goes straight to his office after that. What the fuck Brah?

She's in his office in less than a second later, asking him exactly that.

"I don't see what the problem is" He is looking for something in his drawer, not even bothering to look up.

"The problem is, _boss_, that you just made a change in the game plan in order to keep me away from the action"

"Don't be ridiculous" he tells her while continuing his search between the stacks of papers on his desk "Why would I do something like that?"

"Exactly my point", She raises her voice a little bit, "Why _would_ you do something so irrational, not to say, plain dumb?"

He looks at her thoughtfully. "Can you try to make your point again, if possible, without insulting me this time?"

"Is this your ill directed attempt to protect me or something?" She tries again. calmly, even though she's not sure he has the right to complain about insults here.

Steve pauses for a minute, carefully considering her question. She's furious, he can tell. He shoots a look at Chin on the other side of the glass wall, but the older cop is preoccupied with the computer so he's on his own here.

"It's the best plan" he tells her, going back to his previous search, now checking the filing cabinet "This is a tactical decision, don't over analyze it".

"I'm going to the club tonight" She notifies him, because he's the boss after all, so he should at least be aware of the change in the game plan. He stops his weird preoccupation with the filling cabinet and looks at her. "No you're not" he says decisively.

She opens her mouth in protest, but he cuts her off before she has the chance to say a word "I'm sorry baby, It's not my idea" Excuse her? what did he just say? "Chin was worried that I'll be a bad influence on you, so... we came to... an understanding", he continues and she's so surprised she can't even speak. have they both gone mad? What understanding?

"You know I have complete faith in your abilities" Steve reassures her, as if that will be enough to eliminate the bitter taste of betrayal "It's just temporary, until Chin will get used to...everything. Just let it slide, it's not a big deal". She looks at him as though he just grew an additional head, and she can't say anything because if she opens her mouth, she might do something stupid like spit in his eye, or... even cry...

It takes a few more seconds, and he still seems unbothered by the invisible waves of anger she's projecting. Standing there staring at him doesn't seem to get her anywhere, so when she sees that he is not about to grace her with another word anyway, she makes a furious retreat towards the door.

"Are you coming over tonight?" He asks when she opens the door and steps out of the room "Danny and I, will probably leave sometime around 10 PM. We can have dinner together before that"

She hopes that the door slamming is a good enough answer.

()()()

She doesn't come over that night. It's probably for the best. She's so pissed, only bad things can come out of this, so she stays at home getting angrier and angrier by the minute. She's probably overreacting, she is totally aware of that, but when she runs through the morning's conversation again and again and again, she gets a little bit dizzy and her decision making process is somewhat damaged, obviously, because by midnight she finds herself parking her car near the club, and 10 minutes later she's inside wearing a much too short and much too tight little black dress. She's looking around, trying to spot Steve and Danny but it's so crowded she can't see anyone clearly, so she takes a seat at the bar and orders a Martini.

It's not long before someone sits beside her and she lets him buy her a drink. They sit together, and laugh together and she almost forgets to look around for Steve and Danny, but when she suddenly sees a blond guy with a spider tattoo on the back of the neck, she is much too thrilled with her success and follows him out into the street without backup. He stops outside to light a cigarette, and she 'accidentally' bumps into his back, pretending to be drunk.

"Do you have one for me?" She asks him with a friendly smile, and after he runs his eyes over her body he reaches to his pocket and produces another cigarette for her. She is making a whole deal out of letting him light her cigarette, sending him a flirtatious look when the light from the flame illuminates her face, but just when he is about to let his guard down and she prepares for the strike, feeling for the handcuffs inside her purse, he surprises her, grabs her, and pulls her towards a speeding van that comes out of nowhere. She bangs her head on the van's door when he shoves her in, so she is unable to fight for a few precious seconds. Yeah. That's really not what she had in mind. She can only imagine Steve's reaction to this. She has seen him pissed before, even pissed at her, and it wasn't pleasant. She makes a mental note to blame it all on Chin, because, when Steve will find out, he's going to kill someone, and hey - better Chin than her. After all, what the hell is family for, anyway?

()()()

"Call Chin!" Steve shouts, tangible intensity radiating from him in waves, and Danny is getting his phone out, while Steve calls HPD for a chopper.

Steve is getting tired of hanging around the club waiting, when he suddenly thinks he sees her, sitting at the bar drinking and laughing, and he thinks that it's probably just him, getting crazy again, because he sees her most of the time anyway. It's probably guilt or something, even though he has nothing to be sorry for, because obviously he was totally right making the decision to put her on the sidelines for that one. He'll let Chin come to his senses, without, you know, shooting him, or murdering him in his sleep. Because when he took Chin for a man-on-man conversation, to explain to him in a calm and quiet manner, that unfortunately he has been sleeping with his young cousin for the last two weeks, Chin's expert right hook almost took his eye out, and made him see stars for a few moments. Instead of giving in to his instincts and slugging him right back, Steve apologized, sincerely, and agreed to everything the guy asked. It was only when Kono stormed out of his office, almost breaking the glass door on her way out that it occurred to him that maybe, she should have been consulted about that. But fuck it, he _is_ the commanding officer here, so he will not be told what to do with his team, except by Chin, obviously. No. No blame here thank you very much, and if it makes him imagine her face on every passing girl on the island, he can absolutely live with it.

That is Until suddenly the girl at the bar stands up and walks determinedly towards the door, and it's actually her, black dress and all. He smiles at first because it's exactly the kind of crazy things she does that made him fall for her in the first place, but when he spots her target, his blood turns to ice in his veins and he yanks Danny's arm violently. When they finally manage to pass through the drunken crowd and get to the door, they see her being pushed into the van and disappear.

The Camaro is parked at the other side of the club, and as they run he yells to Danny to call fucking Chin and gets his own phone out to call for a chopper. It's strange because through it all, all he is able to think about is the necklace she left on his nightstand which he forgot to give back.

()()()

She wakes up with a massive headache and takes a look around the room. It looks like a motel room, and there is no one around. She goes to the window, but the glass is filthy and she can only see what looks like a dimly lit and deserted parking lot.

Her purse is nowhere to be seen, which means her gun, her badge and her cell phone are gone too. Great. She tries the door, not expecting much and when it appears to be, not unexpectedly, locked, she only shrugs and goes to the bathroom. If anything, she might find some Tylenols there.

She looks in the mirror, and groans at the drained, exhausted and filthy image that peers back at her. The window in the bathroom is too small to sneak out through, but when she stands on the toilet seat, and looks out, she can hear two people talking.

"I'm telling you Chazz. We can use her. You saw how she looks".

"Are you crazy?" The man name Chazz is hissing back "She's a cop. We should let her go before shesees our faces".

Kono decides Chazz sounds like a very nice and reasonable guy, and makes a mental note not to hurt him too bad when she eventually have a go with the fucking bastards.

"She has already seen me" the first one is hissing back "You think it was an accident a cop just came and asked me for a smoke?" Yeah, the spider tattoo guy, no doubt.

"We should ask the boss" Chazz, who is practically a fountain of wisdom today is saying "before we do anything".

"OK" Spiderman answers reluctantly.

So there is a boss apparently. Great. She will have to wait before knocking their heads in. She starts to clean herself up. No reason to look like a witch if she can avoid it, right?

()()()

"It's not your fault"

"I know it's not my fault"

"Just wanted to help you feel better, jeez. no reason to bite my head off"

"I don't need your help Danny, I've done nothing wrong"

"It's not anyone's fault" Danny adds, because maybe Steve doesn't need his reassurance, but he still needs some himself, especially when Steve is so angry, you could actually boil an egg on the fumes.

"Oh, it's _somebody's_ fault!" Steve states convincingly.

"Ehh... Kono's?" Danny feels like he's walking on ice here.

"Yes, Kono's!" Steve is yelling now, which is a bit frightening in a close confined space like a car. "She disobeyed a direct order, she went on a suicide mission without backup, she didn't maintain open communication channels..."

"She acted impulsively and irresponsibly and did whatever the fuck she wanted" Danny continues his train of thoughts "I wonder where she learnt to do that..."

Steve shoots him a threatening glare.

"We need to find the van" Danny says, "I don't think the chopper would be enough, they probably lost it after the bridge".

"We need better eyes" Steve looks at Danny pointedly, waiting for him to catch on.

"Wait" Danny is looking at him questioningly "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

"Yes. But I think you should make the call" Steve is looking at him in silent plea, and Danny thinks he never saw his partner being that desperate before. "I don't think she'll take my call".

"I wouldn't take your call either" Danny tells him sensibly "You acted like a ass!"

"Will you do it?"

"For Kono? of course I'll do it" Danny produces his phone from his pocket and dials the number.

...

"Hi Catherine. Danny Williams here. How are..."

...

"No. He's still alive".

...

"I swear. I am not calling to tell you to come to his funeral"

...

"I need a favor"

...

"OK, fair enough... We_ both_ need a favor"

...

"yes... right here beside me... yes, he i_s_ a god damn piece of work that should not make me do he's dirty work, I completely agree..."

"Will you stop messing around?" Steve is hissing furiously at his partner who only waves him off with annoyance.

"We need eyes on a white van leaving the Flamingo club in Honolulu 2 hours ago, heading east. We were giving chase but the chopper lost it. We think it went into the downtown area behind the bridge"

...

"The rush?... We have a team member inside, undercover"

...

"It's Kono Kalakaua"

...

"Yes... you are completely right... It _is_ ironic _and_ awkward..."

...

"No. I'm not completely sure he can appreciate that kind of subtlety in regard to human feelings..."

...

"I did offer therapy, a few times, I even offered to pay..."

...

"Well, she's young, probably doesn't know better. It's a really sad story..."

...

"I'm going to kill you, Danny" Steve is gripping the steering wheel with such force, he almost pulls it out.

"Thank you Catherine. This is very kind of you". Danny sends an amused gaze towards his partner.

...

"I will, Catherine" He adds before he disconnects the conversation "I'll make sure to bring it up repeatedly, for the rest of his sorry life"

...

Steve is groaning in frustration when Danny shoots him a serious look. Danny is going to use this conversation to torment him for the rest of the foreseeable future, and they both know it. If this sacrifice for Kono will not count as true love, he doesn't know what will...

Steve's desperation is all gone a few minutes later when Danny's phone beeps with the coordinates of the white van who took his infuriating subordinate.

()()()

She has no idea how long it's been since she was taken. She calculates she was taken from the club around 02:00 AM, and by the few streaks of light she sees through the window she thinks it's around four thirty or maybe quarter to five now, and she wonders when will the guys find out she is missing. By saying guys, she means Steve. He probably knows by now that he acted like a complete jerk, and although she still questions his ability to reach this very obvious conclusion by himself, she is quite sure spending the night with Danny will show him the light.

She could never imagine how effective Danny's rants can be. The fact that he was married to an ex-wife from hell, probably makes him even more sensitive to the specific needs of the average woman, needs such as respect, appreciation and junk food.

After spending the night in the club, they probably left around the time she was taken, so Steve's morning run will probably be later than usual, which will get him to HQ in the uncharacteristically late hour of seven thirty. He will probably notice her absence around nine. Fortunately, it will never occur to him that she is not there because she is trying to avoid him or something. She tried that once, on the day after their first...well...hookup. He didn't pick up on the subtle sign, came to her house as if she wasn't gone for the whole day, let himself in and took her to bed without saying a word. She stopped using small and nonverbal messages since then. Went with precise digs instead. So actually, sleeping with her thick headed boss, has just earned her at least 5 more hours in this shady motel room. Crap.

()()()

There are noises from outside the door. And she looks for something to use as a weapon. She finds a bedside lamp and pulls it out of the wall socket. She holds the ceramic bottom of the lamp above her head as she waits silently for the door to open. When the door suddenly bangs open with a well targeted kick, she slams the ceramic lamp on the head of the intruder. He is taller than her, which is unusual, so she misses his head and hits his right shoulder with such force, his gun drops to the floor. She is bursting with a rush of adrenalin, and is in the middle of a high arch kick when she realizes who it is, and it's unfortunate really, because she just can't stop her movement in time. She sees his shocked face just as her leg comes in contact with the left side of his chest and sees him drop to the floor. She crouches over him with alarm.

"Steve! Are you alright? I thought you were Spiderman!" She says, as if this crazy statement is even supposed to make sense. He sends her a questioning look as he whispers "I think you broke a rib".

Danny is just standing there tucking his gun back in the holster, shaking his head at the pair of them.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: **Thank you all for all your kind words and encouragements. It made me very happy, and I appreciate the time and effort you made letting me know what you think. Unfortunately I was not able to thank everyone individually

I am terribly sorry for the delay in publishing this chapter, a lot on my plate lately, my intention was to be able to publish much sooner.

Hope you'll like this one, and I hope it was worth the wait.

Thanks again to my darling D.

* * *

"I said I was sorry..."

"I can't believe you!"

"You can't believe I am sorry?"

"I can't believe you did it"

"I think you'll have to be more specific" she frowns.

"Any of it, actually..."

"I'm sorry"

"Yes. You said..."

He gets up from the couch using his free hand and makes a tormented expression that has her rolling her eyes in irritation.

"You're overreacting, obviously"

"You broke my ribs" He tells her accusingly as he starts making it slowly up the stairs "plural!"

"Oh, stop whining" She turns the lights off and follows him upstairs. Why exactly did she come here? It was obvious he'll be intolerable. Oh yes - She missed him quite terribly, intolerable and all.

"I'm not whining. I'm in pain. Because of you!" He tells her in the bedroom as he kicks off his slippers and drops his jeans using his right hand. "I mean, come on, in one week I get my ass kicked by both you _and_ your cousin. What's going on with your family anyway?"

"Give me a break, _you_ brought my family into this mess in the first place" She stands in front of him, arms crossed tapping her foot impatiently.

"Oh yeah?" he looks at her and she can see he's getting irritated again, "How do you figure?"

"Accepting dinner invitations from my mother, sharing "bed-time" stories with Chin-ho...ring any bells?"

They stand there looking at each other with growing anger, their eyes piercing into each other's like daggers, until she suddenly realizes that this was not what she had in mind when she came here tonight. She takes a deep breath, counts to ten and smiles at him. He is a little bit surprised with this sudden change of attitude, and eyes her suspiciously. She shakes her head and carefully laces her long arms around his neck, giving him a little kiss on the tip of his nose.

"Are you in pain baby?" She asks in a husky voice, smiling into his eyes. He is still grumpy, so he only grunts back to indicate that he is. She laughs at that, and kisses him again on his chin.

"Where does it hurt baby?" she whispers.

"My chest" he grunts.

"Where?" She kisses his neck.

"Lower" he groans, looking at her with an unappeased expression.

"Here?" She kisses the opening of his v-neck collar.

"To the left"

she releases her hands from around his neck and with a swift but careful movement takes off his shirt, starting with his undamaged right side, and before he knows it, he is standing there only in his boxers.

"Here?" She kisses his left chest, grazing her teeth on his pectoral muscle and licking his nipple.

"Almost" he tells her, and he is still groaning, but she suspects it's for a different reason this time.

"I think I need to make a more thorough examination" she mumbles, sucking his nipple slowly, "It will be easier if you lie down".

He obliges her without a word. She hovers above him, continuing her exploration. And when she continues with her ministrations, trailing her tongue slowly down his flat and muscular stomach, she thinks she hears him say "I'm still mad at you, you know".

"That's Ok, baby" She reassures him without lifting her head, "I'll let you punish me later..."

()()()

In the morning they go back to HQ. She tries to fight it at first, because obviously he is still in pain, and definitely last night did not help him recuperate. However, he's being stubborn as always and she knows she is already stretching it, and so she gives in, in hope to make it back on his 'favorites list' soon.

He lets her drive though, which is weird, and also quite stressful with him riding shotgun, making agonized sounds with every turn she makes. Oh Please. she was there last night when his endurance level proved to be much higher.

Everyone gathers around the computer desk again, assessing the information they have. When they burst into the motel they took Chazz in, but Spiderman, as he was christened by Kono, was nowhere to be found. Chin spent the whole morning questioning the guy, but he kept his silence and the search in his apartment revealed nothing, while there was still no sign of the missing girl. They all know that in order to make a progress they have to find the boss.

They need to question Chazz again, for more details, and it's Steve and Chin who takes the assignment. Kono and Danny are going back to the beginning, and head over to question the girl's parents again.

Steve and Kono spend the whole day apart, working. When she and Danny get back to HQ it's only Chin that is still there and Steve is nowhere to be found.

"Where is the invalid?" Danny asks, all kindness.

"With the governor" Chin answers.

"Did you let him go there on his own?" Kono looks at him in alarm.

"What do you mean _let him_?" Chin looks surprised.

"He has pain, he's in no condition to drive" Kono is furious.

"He looked pretty healthy to me..." Chin shrugs at her concern. "He was completely comfortable dragging Chazz along the entire corridor all by himself, throwing him in the trash bin outside, putting the lid on and sitting on it until the guy stopped screaming and was ready to come out and give us a name".

Yes. That sounds pretty healthy, she has to admit. Well, healthy might be too strong a word actually, but purely physically speaking, it sounds pretty normal for Steve.

()()()

She goes to meet him outside the governor's office. Climbing up the stairs she sees him hurrying down towards her. "Hi" He says, preoccupied by the looks of him, "Did you find out anything new?"

"No lead from talking to the parents. No" She answers as they continue to walk back.

"You seem better..." She says carefully.

"What?" He looks at her obviously distracted "Oh yes, I'm good".

"That was quick" she says beneath her breath, but he ignores her so she lets it go. "I heard you got a name".

"Yes. Chin was supposed to run the info. Probably the name of the tattoo guy who took you"

She cringes at his reference to her earlier cock-up, but he doesn't even notice it, all business like and in 'operation mode', and she can't tell if he's still mad at her or blames her for something, or even worse, doesn't even care anymore.

She thinks it must be a bad sign that after two weeks, she still doesn't have a clue what he's thinking most of the time. Sure, they've been sleeping together, most nights anyway, always staying the night. They had two dinners together and both were immediately after work and before sex. The family dinner her mother insisted on was canceled in an act of sheer luck, when they got new case, and she was more than thrilled to take a rain check, subjected to what she could only, _strangely,_ describe as Steve's displeased look. It's been fun. They enjoyed each other's company, and the sex was, well, she would say it was amazing, but amazing didn't seem to even come close. The whole thing was just easy and fluid, mostly because they were together all the time anyway. However, she couldn't stop thinking that something was going on under the surface, especially when she caught Steve looking at her sometimes with thoughtful concentration, or when he kissed her desperately in the mornings when they said goodbye before work. They should talk about it, she realizes that, but busy as they are, and being the way they are, they don't really talk. Either of them. At least not about important stuff, like feelings. Ever. It is much easier to go straight to the sex part. Every time. So she has no idea what's going on here actually, and she's getting worried about it now, because the sad thing is that as bad as it looks, there is one thing she _does_ know after two weeks, and it's the fact that every minute when she's not around him, she gets that weird feeling in the pit of her stomach, and she can't relax completely until she actually sees him, or hear his voice, even if he_ is_ extremely impolite when she calls him and wakes him up at three in the morning without any apparent reason.

"We have a lead" Chin tells them as they step in. "I'm getting the address now".

()()()

They end up finding the tattoo guy. And his name is not Spiderman but Stanley, Which Kono finds to be quite a disappointment. They drag him to the interrogation room, and by the time Chin and Steve are done with him they have all the information they need. It seems that the boss is a wealthy mob guy, who is working on a real-estate project with the girl's father. After some disagreements they had in regard to some payoffs of municipal officials, the boss decided to take the girl as leverage to keep the payments running. He contracted Stanley and Chazz, two low ranking human traffickers to grab her, and she is being held in his mansion. It must be their lucky day, because the big boss is having a party tomorrow night at his place, and it looks like someone is going to crush the party.

()()()

"What the hell is this?'

"It's a three headed crocodile wearing a hula skirt. What do you think it is?"

"I have no idea, but I hope it's dead" Steve takes the unidentified bag from the refrigerator and throws it in the sink in disgust.

"And what the hell is that?" he continues his exploration of Danny's sorry excuse of a food supply.

"Is there a particular reason you should be here at... eleven at night insulting what I have to assume was my perfectly innocent lettuce?"

"You should really shop more often, Danny. And as happy as I am to see that you actually made the effort and bought green vegetables instead of some unfortunate combination of simple sugars and fat, you must realize you're supposed to eat those while they're fresh, right?"

"Don't you have anyone else to harass? I'm sure your girlfriend's refrigerator looks even worse than mine, go pick on her, it will be much more rewarding... to all three of us..."

"I want to hang out with you. Can't I hang out with you? I thought we were friends".

"We are friends, Steven. Good friends, Which is why you are currently standing in front of my fridge, and I am not facing a murder charge for dumping your dead body in the middle of the neighborhood. What's going on?"

"Nothing..." Steve is bending towards the fridge again, but Danny's cough is a good enough reminder, so he shrugs, closes the fridge door and goes to sit on the couch.

"Are you pouting?"

"No" Steve pouts.

"Steve..."

"I don't think she likes me very much".

"What's not to like?" Danny sighs and takes a seat next to what turns out to be his teenage partner. "She adores you. Worships the ground you walk on. You're her favorite person in the world. And this world has Chin ho in it, so that's pretty impressive if you ask me".

"I don't know..." Steve mumbles, not lifting his eyes from a coffee stain on the carpet.

"Is it about the last job? you think she's still mad? because I'm 70 percent sure the kick was unintentional..."

"I'm talking generally. The job is just a part of it...and ...well... she came over that evening and she..."

"...She _actively_ _showed_ how sorry she was. I got it. No need for details, thank you... Wait, with broken ribs? really?"

"Well, she was the one who actually..."

"Shut up. I don't want to hear, it feels like watching a dirty movie of your sister with your parents..."

"You're disgusting"

"Let's agree that we are both disgusting and leave it at that" Danny can't stop his scolding headshake but Steve decides to let this one go. " Anyway, if everything is Ok and you talked..."

"Talked?"

"Yeah...Talked. Like in moving your lips, and producing sounds that you can form into words that explain your actions, and describe your feelings... I mean we've been partners for a long time now, you must have seen me do it..."

"Yeah. I thought it sounded familiar. No. We actually don't... talk..."

"Why?"

"Well... I think we both think we should, and honestly, I think we even tried it once or twice..."

"But..."

"Well, basically, it's the part that you don't want to hear about that comes in the way..."

"Get out of my house"

"Now?"

"Now. It's late. I might do something we'll both regret later" Danny pulls Steve forcefully from the couch and shoves him towards the door.

"But I thought we were talking..."

"Well, I think I'm giving it up now" Danny holds the door open for his partner.

"You know, you should do something with that coffee stain..."

"Steven, I'm getting my gun..."

"Danno..."

"Look. Just go to see her. You don't have to talk. Just try to be there without, you know, molesting her. It will be very educational for you. I promise."

()()()

Her house is dark when he gets there. And the door is locked. He momentarily considers going home and leaving it alone, but he's afraid of Danny, so he takes a tool kit from his car and picks the lock.

"Did you break the door?" She asks as he steps into the bedroom, and she's lying there tangled in the sheets.

"No. But I think you need a new lock. This one is too easy". He puts his phone and his gun on the night stand.

She moves a little when he sits on the bed to take off his shoes and his clothes, and when he's done he lies beside her carefully, avoiding the pain that is still there when he moves. She arranges herself around him, her hand encircling his waist as she kisses his right shoulder just over his tattoo. He is so tired, he's asleep in two seconds, and his rhythmic breathing lulls her to sleep as well.

()()()

When she wakes up he is already in the shower, so she calculates she has less than three minutes to get ready. She joins him there when he brushes his teeth at the sink, and she sits next to him on the counter admiring his naked upper body.

"I am going to need you outside of the mansion today" He tells her as he rinses his toothbrush. "I'm telling you this now, as a self preservation measure, because I don't want you to assault me again for leaving you out of the action. I actually need your sniper's expertise when Danny and I will be trying to find the girl".

"I understand" she tells him seriously "I know that you'll decide to do what is best for the job".

"Good" he says and he stands there looking at her quietly.

"Good" she tries to smile but she gets that strange uncomfortable feeling again, and he looks at her with such intensity it's making her tremble. "Steve, is there something you want to tell me?" She really doesn't want to do it now, especially when they have an operation going down tonight, but she can't go on like this, with the uncertainty, _especially_ when there is an operation going down tonight.

"Do you even want to be with me, Kono?" He asks unexpectedly, and it's so out of context, not to mention out of character, it's hard to tell who is more surprised, her or him.

"What?" She obviously underestimated her fighting skills. Because, although she is quite sure she smashed the lamp into his shoulder, his last question must be an indication of a brain trauma of some sort. Come on, is he fucking kidding her? of course she wants to be with him!

"Of course I want to be with you!" she says in alarm, as though she was just slapped in the face. "I..." she is not ready for any elaborated declarations of love yet, so she focuses on conveying her initial message "you know I do. What makes you think that I don't? Is it because of the last job? because I thought I made it clear when I... apologized... quite thoroughly..." she tries to smile at him, but she is much too scared right now.

"Well... I don't know. I'm not so good at this... relationship and emotional stuff..." This is the understatement of the century, and they both know it. "So maybe I'm completely wrong here, but it looks like you... well, you get mad all the time..."

"You make me mad all the time. A Perfectly reasonable response, and it's actually quite healthy for me to express it, so there's no problem with that!". She reassures him.

"And you didn't want Chin ho to know about us..."

"And I was completely right about that!"

"Fair enough. And you were very happy to cancel the dinner with your mother and not having me there to meet your family..."

"Is this about my mother?" She asks in astonishment "Were you offended that I didn't want to take you to the Kalakaua luau?"

"Well, why wouldn't you? I'm a really nice guy" Steve realizes that it all starts to sound a bit strange, but he can't see a way out without losing face, so he as might as well go through with it.

"Oh baby, you are so not a nice guy..." she says it with as much love as she can, because he's actually not. " You're rude, you're impolite and so inappropriate that two seconds after meeting my mother you were already discussing our sex life..." She has a point, and they both know it, but he sees it a little differently.

"Do you honestly think that spending the evening with my overpopulated family, and especially my mother, and my aunts, and my cousins will be a good experience for you? I mean, a big, noisy, nose sticking family doesn't sound like your cup of tea, now does it...?"

"I have no idea" he says simply, closing the discussion. And they are both silent when she watches him grabbing his razor from the counter, and starting to apply the shaving gel. And then, it suddenly hits her, because obviously she managed to forget that he actually doesn't have a mother, or a big family, and his sister and him are not the perfect model of a stable relationship, and she is probably the biggest bitch in the entire world, and if she was him she would probably have given herself the boot and never looked at herself again. And she will get out of the bathroom now, so he will not see her tears, and will go call her mother, because even if she ends up wanting to hang herself by the end of the night, she thinks that this is the least she could do...


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: **Thank you all for your reviews and support. It means a lot. I am sorry for the delayed update.

I am not sure if this chapter is still in the right track. I am trying obsessively to keep the characters as presented in the show, but at the same time have them progress in the course of my story (Steve's ability to talk and explain himself should be a good next step for example). I hope I still have it balanced. Tell me what you think...

* * *

She blames this one on her mother. And, yes. She realizes this is some kind of a cliché and that everybody suppose to blame their mothers for something, but really, when the psychologists suggested that model, they must had Mrs. Kalakaua on their mind. Because apart from being a super badass cool type of a mother, she can actually make a grown man cry just by staring at him. Not to mention what she can make her daughter do. The big surprise was her ability to succeed where many villains and terrorists and cold hearted murderers failed, and make Lieutenant Commander Steven McGarrett drop to his knees and beg for mercy. So there, she blames her mother. And there is no type of therapy that can actually fix this one. Especially when it looks like Steve doesn't do therapy. Luckily. We wouldn't want some poor psychologist committing suicide after being forced to listen to him, now would we.

()()()

She sees Danny and Steve wait at the side of the mansion's wall when Chin talks to the security guard. There are a lot of security guards, and the three who are closest to the main entrance are going to see what is going on with that big police car which Chin positions strategically obstructing the gait, creating a long line of cars of curious guests behind him starting to get out of the cars.

With the guards occupied at the gate, Steve takes the opportunity and climbs the wall in two swift movements, she can see his expression through the gun's scope and can tell he is still struggling with his left side. However, he is still at his best super navy SEAL mode, reaching his arm to Danny and helps him climb over the wall as well.

"They're in" She tells Chin through the com, scanning the ground. He wraps up his dealings with the guards and retreats back to his position in the conveniently hidden van where he already has connection with the security cameras of the mansion. The thermal imaging they have points to a group of people in the far east corner of the house, three people standing together, and one image, sitting down on the farthest side of the room. In a mansion full of guests, they suspect this is the place where they hold the girl. Kono advances between the trees around the mansion's walls towards the east, she will cover the east side from the windows, while Steve and Danny will get there from the inside. Chin will monitor the scene and alert HPD for any development.

There's a tensed quiet, and she waits at her hiding place in one of the trees canopy, scanning the east side windows. They are in radio silence because obviously Steve and Danny can't make any sound, and she genuinely wonders how Danny is actually holding up, but she doesn't have to wait long before the noise begins. There are shouts first, and she can hear furniture dragged, and a door breaks. And she hears Steve's voice shouting "Don't even think abo.." before a gunshot is heard.

She sees guards running up the stairs and Steve running towards them, and she thinks about warning him, for a moment, but he is probably doing it on purpose the overzealous pain in the neck commander of hers, so she props her gun up to her shoulder and starts shooting at the guards, dropping two of them, while Steve reaches the third one and kicks his head out with one swing of his leg.

She looks at the infrared image again, it looks like all three guards are surrounding the girl now, so she advances towards the Mansion and climbs the wall. It's not exactly part of the plan, but by the amount of noise, people's screams, gun shots and the distant sound of HPD sirens she comes to the conclusion that pretty much the plan was blown to the wind anyway.

She reaches the eastern wall and climbs up. Steve's voice is booming from the other side of the window as he shouts to the guards to let go of the girl and give it up. One of the guards is pointing his gun at Steve when she reaches the window, and Danny shoots him in the chest. The second one is shot by Steve, and drops instantly on the floor. Everything is a little fuzzy from then onwards. She breaks the window with her gun, and launches on top of the man holding the girl, when he loses his balance Steve is pulling the girl away and Danny takes her out of the room towards the stairs where the first HPD forces are already arresting the disoriented guards.

By the time Steve is done with the girl and turns towards the room again, Kono is standing there with the guard holding her neck from behind and a gun pointed at her temple.

She can see Steve's expression, and if she was the man with the gun she would be extremely worried, he looks furious, almost crazed, like a bear protecting it's youngs, and she has to smile at him, because his silent fury is so sweet and funny and even though it's true that in normal days she would find it unnecessary and maybe irritating, in the current circumstances, with a gun shoved into her head, she can actually see the appeal.

He looks at her smiling there, thinking how in the name of god did he find that crazy girl that was supposed to be shaking with fear right now, and not, as it happen, sending him a loving and trusting smile, and he suddenly has the urge to kiss her, so he makes a step forward, a step which reminds him of the existence of the stupid guy with the gun, when the later shouts at him to keep his distance. Steve's gun is pointed at the guy's head, and as she nods, he knows what she wants him to do. He shakes his head severely at her direction, he is not taking this shot. She frowns at him, but he shakes his head again.

She rolls her eyes up in frustration, why does he always have to make all the decisions in this relationship? they really should talk about his control issues sometime. "Steve" she says quietly and the guy is tightening his arm around her neck mumbling "shut up bitch", and that probably was a bad choice of words at his part, because the next thing that happens is that Kono is moving her head to the left, and Steve shoots him in the face.

There is blood everywhere and the guy's body is heavy and pulling her down, and she almost falls, but Steve's strong hand grabs her shoulder and he holds her close to his chest for just a second, releasing a deep breath he was holding for the last few minutes without even knowing.

He lets her go eventually, and they look around them at the wreckage when Danny is back in the room. "What the hell happened here?" He asks in astonishment.

"A minor deviation from the plan" Steve answers, securing his gun back in its holster, "everything is fine now".

"Why is your girlfriend covered with blood?" Danny asks in concern.

"She's fine" Steve is looking at Kono with pleased expression. The arrogant easiness is back as though he was not scared shitless a few moments ago. "Where's the girl?"

"She's with HPD. The parents are on their way and we're arresting everybody" Danny is looking dubiously between the two of them, but both look relaxed and possibly... amused? with the whole thing.

"What did you do now?" It's Chin's voice coming from the doorway.

They look at him in confusion, honestly they are not sure who he is talking to, him or her.

"_I didn't do anything_" They answer in unison, but Chin is hardly impressed.

"I thought we had a deal" he states with threatening calmness, looking at Steve.

"We did" Steve answers hurriedly "we do!"

"We had an understanding, I keep my mouth shut and not shoot you, and you keep the kid alive until she's thirty. It's the second time in three days that you put her in danger" Chin sighs "what do you expect me to do?"

"We had some tactical problems, I admit it, but look, she's fine" He gestures happily towards Kono "I would say the spirit of the deal was kept to the full".

Kono smiles towards her cousin in what she hopes is easy and light reassurance, but she suspects that the fact that her head is saturated with blood takes away some of the over whole impression.

"Yes. I can see that" Chin scans his cousin slowly "and the blood she's covered with is just because she looks nice in red?"

"Well" Steve says thoughtfully, "she does".

"That's it. I wash my hands from the whole thing" Chin is raising his hands in surrender, "We'll see what her mother has to say about it".

Yeah... that's great. Just peachy.

()()()

"are you OK?"

"Yeah. A tad more tensed than I was in North Korea, but apart from that, perfectly Ok" he answers grumpily. "I don't think we should hold hands though..." He drops her hand from his grip and she can see him clenching his fists in aggression.

"Why not?" She asks surprised. "Are you embarrassed?" his tensed and concentrated expression is so cute, she has to smile.

"Not at all" He says looking around him in suspicion. "I just think we should keep our hands free, in case we need to, you know, fight..." He is dead serious saying that, and she is only half sure he is overreacting.

"How many relatives do you have anyway?" He looks with apprehension at the overcrowded lawn in front of them.

"define relatives"

"Let's focus on first degree cousins" he mumbles looking back at his truck, and she knows he is trying to plan his potential escape route "I think we can establish they are the main threat here..."

"56" she tells him. Because she knows he will appreciate the truth.

"So I guess it's 55 people who already hates my guts" he groans.

"56" She says. Because she really tries to be truthful here.

"56...? Oh! you don't count Chin" he says offhandedly.

"I _do_ count Chin, it's 56" she says it with a shrug, and she feels him stiff for a second beside her.

"Don't worry, baby. I'll protect you" she smiles at him when they reach the big lawn a second later, but they are greeted there by a big and heavy silence, which makes her rethink her ability to do so.

()()()

"I don't know"

"What do you mean you don't know? He didn't tell you about his parents?"

"He doesn't really talk much".

"About his family?"

"About anything. On the contrary, he's practically _chatty_ when it comes to his family when I think about it. I know his father was a cop, he was murdered. His mother was also murdered, years ago, when he was a kid. His grandfather was a sailor on the Arizona and died in Pearl Harbor..."

"What kind of family is this?" Kono's mother stops her midsentence and raises her head from the highly exaggerated pile of food she's moving from place to place on the big table, "everybody getting dead all the time. How reckless can one family be for god's sake? I'm not sure that I like it, Kono"

"I don't know if it's recklessness..." She has to admit that the grim fate of the McGarrett clan is somewhat disturbing. "Judging by Steve's behavior, maybe they just irritate the crap out of everybody so they have to kill them... He has a sister who's alive..." she says hopefully.

"Is she acutely ill? on the witness protection program? goes on suicide missions for an elite military unit?"

"She's a flight attendant"

"You call this alive?..." her mother mumbles, not even joking.

"Anyway...thanks for having us today, mom" She says quietly "It was very important for Steve. Apparently. I don't think he ever been to... I mean... as he has no..."

"It's fine, darling" her mom is stepping towards her tucking a strand of her daughter's black hair behind her ear "We're happy to have him".

Kono is smiling back. Her mother is so sweet sometimes. Always knows to say the right thing, and sense what she's feeling. And it's so nice that she can look at Steve and say a thing like that because she really wanted to tell someone, finally, how happy he makes her feel. And how wonderful it is to be with him. And tell about the way he appreciates how strong she is, and how serious she is in her job, and even if he's mad sometimes at the stupid things she does, its only because he knows she can do better, and because he will not give her any allowances for... let's face it, sleeping with him. And she can tell him the truth and snap at him without being scared to ruin everything. And she never met a guy she liked who just wanted her the way she is, hot headed, workaholic and rough around the edges. And Steven McGarrett, who looks like an arrogant macho, cold hearted super SEAL turned out to be the most trusting, patient and accepting lover she could find. He is solid as a rock, takes things as they come, and when she is doing some crazy, annoying, unexplained thing, instead of running for the hills like a normal guy, just smiles at her, and kisses her and makes her feel good.

She is just about to tell her beautiful wonderful mom all that, but before she has the time, her mom is looking at the far side of the lawn and say "It's nice of Chin ho to introduce Steve to your father". Crap.

()()()

She tries not to run there, because her mother is one step behind her and when they reach the group, and Kono rushes towards Steve, her mother is there as well, taking Kono's hand in her own and joins the massacre.

Kono's dad is big. Very big. Bigger than Steve actually, which is uncommon, and he has a deep scary voice and a thoughtful expression with big black piercing eyes that makes you doubt everything you believe in.

And when they reach the battle ground, his voice is booming for everyone to hear.

"So let me get that straight, You got my daughter kidnapped under your nose, knocked at the head and held at gun point?"

"Twice. And that's only in the last week" Chin is clarifying helpfully.

"She was only taken once, and we got her back in a couple of hours. She was doing perfectly well on her own at the time. The other occurrence was handled very quickly, and If you need to worry about anyone, you should worry about the poor guy who tried to grab her. They still pick up pieces of him". Steve sounds very sure of himself, not worried at all, and it's really kind of him not to mention what a complete ass she made of herself at those two specific occasions.

"She is not supposed to be in these positions" Her father continues "She is a rookie, and way too young, and not trained enough".

"She's an integral part of an elite task force" Steve clarifies again "She can take care of herself".

She wants to kiss him. No, she actually wants to pin him down on the ground, tear his clothes off and fuck his brains out, but she tries to keep it civilized, with her parents there and all.

"She obviously tries to impress him" her mother says "I was worried about it when I realized he was her commanding officer". They all look at her now. Including Steve, and it's the scariest she felt in the last week, which must explain a lot about her family dynamics. She actually misses that Spiderman guy.

"She doesn't need to impress me" Steve says after a long charged pause. "She knows how valuable she is".

"It must be very hard" her mother looks at Steve with a sigh.

"What is?" he asks suspiciously, because he knows there's going to be a trick there.

"She was never good in taking orders" her father nods in agreement.

"Every time we grounded her she escaped" her mother says shaking her head in disappointment. What the fuck? when did it all turn into a 'let's trash kono day'? They were just in the middle of tormenting Steve, it was a perfectly legitimate crusade, they should have taken the most out of it first, before turning on her. Not fair.

"She can be quite... rebellious sometimes..." Steve adds carefully after a short pause. Fucking traitor! She does _not_ want to fuck him actually. possibly ever again.

"I told you she was too young to join the force" her mother is saying again with a pained expression "we shouldn't have sign her application".

"She seems to be making progress..." Steve is offering hope to the two worried parents, because he always have a soft spot for parents, but when he catches the furious glint in Kono's eyes he adds quickly "She is very good at what she does, very responsible".

"Would you call sleeping around with her boss and getting caught up in compromising situations time after time, being responsible?" her mother is asking it in mock curiosity. Yes he stepped straight into this one.

"Mom!" Kono is horrified at the public humiliation.

"We are not just sleeping around" Steve says decisively, looking pointedly at Kono's mother.

The whole lawn is so quiet, even the children stopped running around and everybody's looking at Steve, which seems much calmer than he should be if you ask her, and at Kono who is actually mortified by the sudden attention to her sex life. Momentarily she finds console in the fact that in the last two weeks, she actually acquired some sex life, but the mortification is so overwhelming, she seriously considers a nunnery in the future. You know, after they'll kill Steve. Because obviously they will. Even before desserts.

"It's serious" Steve says. Because everybody is looking at him, and he feels that he should say something.

"Is it?" Kono's mom is looking at him with questionable look, and then she looks at Kono. Steve looks at Kono too. Everybody looks at Kono actually, and she tries to concentrate because they all look at her as though she is supposed to tell them something really important, and she wonders what it is.

"It's serious?" her mother asks again, looking at her. And she realizes for the first time what is happening here, because it looks like her mother tricked them and brought Steve here just to make him declare his intentions publicly, in front of witnesses. Witnesses that might cause him bodily harm if he ever try to back out of this mess.

And she turns towards him, just to let him know that this is all a trick, and he should keep quiet, and that they are leaving now! before irreversible damage is done, but when she looks at him, at the most beautiful, sweet, sexy, emotionally defected lover of hers, she realizes that it's too late because he stands there with his serious expression, with his arms crossed, and looks around at all the people on the lawn, and claims decisively in a clear voice without even looking towards her that Yes. It is serious. Because he has made his decision, thank you very much, and Kono is his now, and he will probably marry her one day and have lots of kids that will run around here, and _will not_ eat malasada's. Ever. Because it's extremity unhealthy, and he will not allow anything bad said about Kono, by anybody, even her family, and there is nothing they can do about it, and he just want to see them try.

()()()

Yes. That's really sweet. And very well thought off, and organized, and it's really nice of him to put her life in order for her. And inform her about their pending marriage verbally and not, with a memo or something. And he is probably delusional if he thinks she is not eating malasada's anymore, or her children. And now, he got her thinking about children? God! She thinks she needs to sit down now. So yeah. Just sitting here, breathing deeply, counting back to ten, and trying not to draw her gun in front of all the lovely people. And hey, this is weird, because she thinks that she just saw Chin and her mother high-fiving one another, but that probably just her brain making tricks on her. And it's good that her father took Steve with him for a quiet talk, and left her to calm down a bit before leaving the two of them alone, because right now, only her father is probably strong enough to protect Steve from her. And she's not being vindictive here, but she thinks she just might give Danny a call, and let him know about his partner's behavior. Maybe he would like to tell him a few things about that.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N**: Thanks again for everyone who took the time to read, and especially to the ones who took the time and wrote me a few words. This is so very appreciated and makes me very happy.

In this chapter I wanted to still focus on Steve and Kono, but I missed Danny, so I tried to bring him back even for a little bit. Hope you'd like it. He and Steve will have a few more discussions in future chapters.

* * *

"Well...That was awful" She says as they sit back in the truck.

"Really?" He looks surprised. "I think it went very well".

"Of course you would" She says as she shakes her head. "Half the time you spent conspiring with my parents, and half the time flirting with every female in the perimeter".

"A. I did not _conspire _with your parents. They had the right to know what's going on" Who was she kidding? of course he would take her parents' side. "And B. I was not flirting with anyone, it's not my fault they all liked me. I told you, I am a really nice guy" he says it in total conviction, and she is definitely going to add delusional to his list of bad qualities.

"Nice? you call this being nice?" she looks at him in amazement "My cousin Lilly practically thrown herself on you, eye-humping you In front of her husband. And my aunt Mana kissed you and hugged you with such affection. I mean, the last time someone saw her smile was on 1976 and even then, the main assumption is that it was some kind of spasm...

"What can I tell you babe?" he looks at her smiling smugly "It's the McGarrett's charm. You should know... it works on you too"

She tries to glare at him in irritation, but he is sitting there, all smiles and confidence. She didn't see him that calm in a long time, and she would think of some smart ass snappy remark, but his satisfaction from himself is so cute, and his smile makes her pulse rise a little bit, and he is totally right about the McGarrett's charm anyway, so she's taking the fifth and just looks at him in amusement. She will probably find a reason to take his head off, later.

()()()

"Where is my bag?" she shouts to him from the bedroom when he goes to the shower.

"What bag?" he asks from the other room.

"My bag, With my work clothes. The one I bring every time I'm staying here" she explains patiently as she rummaging the bedroom.

"In the guest room's closet"

Great. First he announces to her entire family about their pending marriage and his plan to populate the Island with multiple health crazed offsprings, and a second later she discovers that her stuff had been exiled to the guest room. She imagines that it probably had to do with the fact that her bag was thrown unceremoniously in the middle of the room, producing pained looks from Steve every time he saw it, representing no doubt, her complete disregard to the well known McGarrett's rules and bedroom maintenance regulations.

"Neat freak" she mumbles under her breath going to the guest room.

She finds the bag there. Neatly folded in the closet. It is _so_ neatly folded she secretly suspects he ironed the damn thing. Her clothes though are nowhere to be found.

"Where are my clothes?" she asks opening the bathroom door. She tries to keep the anger away from her voice, and seeing him standing there only in his boxer shorts, helps quite a bit.

"In the upper drawer of the dresser in the bedroom" he says without a blink. And when she goes there and opens the drawer, she finds her clothes folded and organized in two piles, as though they were always there. On the top of the dresser she finds her hair brush and a necklace she thought she lost a couple of weeks ago. She is too stunned to know what to make of it. And when she feels Steve standing behind her and encircling his hands around her waist she leans back against his broad chest and declares defeat.

"I love this dress" he whispers in her ear skimming his hands over the delicate material of her well chosen long white dress, the only dress she possesses which actually has sleeves. "I could hardly restrain myself from taking it off of you the entire evening" he kisses her neck causing her to shudder.

"Thank god for small miracles then..." she mumbles sending her hand back to cradle his head.

He spins her around, to face him and attacks her lips with a passionate kiss, she entangles her arms around his neck and forcefully pins herself to his warm and muscular body. He pulls her dress above her waist, and she ties her long legs around his waist as he carries her and sits her on the dresser with her newly assigned drawer. Still kissing her, he gently pushes her backwards and pulls down her underwear. She is desperate to touch him, trying to force him to hurry up and finish what he started, but he is obnoxiously slow and despite her attempts to pull his head up to her lips again, and the fact that her legs forcefully struggle to hold him close to her, he ignores her imploring whimpers and slowly and meticulously kisses his way down her breasts and stomach, and when he reaches his destination, she can hardly breathe anymore. She holds his head as he continues to make her body melt in his hands, or mouth as it happens. She thinks she must have screamed by the end of it, and he stands in front of her breathing heavily, and he is unexpectedly, too excited to smile his trademark smug smile, his body shaking with his battle for restraint, and the fact that he almost loses control in this way, and that he is, for once, unable to hide it, makes her heart clench and her throat tight. He takes her hurriedly to the bed and lays her down. He sheds down his boxers and moves inside her at last, his forehead lying on her shoulder as they move silently together. They reach the point together and his violent hiss in her ear is blended with her deep groan as she clenches around him. When he is able to look up again, and watch her face with his deep blue eyes, she holds his face between her hands, kisses his lips tenderly and says "I love you".

He drops down on her, pinning her to the bed. His head is lying against her shoulder again, his breath tickling her neck and she holds him desperately against her with both arms.

()()()

They don't have a new case. Which is great for everybody, except Kono who suspects she is the only one who actually takes the opportunity to complete some of her overdue paperwork. Chin and Danny are in the other room arguing about the takeout they should all have for lunch. Chin's cunning plan to get Danny hooked on some of the island's delicacies is working quite well, by the sound of it. She tries to block their voices and concentrate. Steve is nowhere to be found. He mumbled something about going to HPD and disappeared a few hours ago. She honestly suspects he is trying to avoid doing paperwork. He is always quite agitated when there is no case to investigate, his body seems to show withdrawal symptoms during those action free periods. She has to admit there are some perks as a result of his inability to release his energy, as well as an unavoidable sleep deprivation for her. Mind you, she is willing to carry this burden if necessary, being the good sports and the extremely supportive girlfriend that she is.

()()()

He is back in HQ an hour later when they are gathered in Chin's office eating junk food. He walks straight to his office and slums the door. They look at each other for a few seconds.

"You go" Chin tells her. "You're his girlfriend".

"Do I have to?" she looks with apprehension towards her lover's office seeing him attacking the computer's keyboard.

"I could go" Danny muses above his box of shrimps "but it might cause him to snap completely".

Fair enough. She should probably go. She is after all going home with him later. Better now than later, when they are alone, in his kitchen, next to his knives set...

"Hey Boss" she says as she walks in the room "I have a problem with this report form HPD".

He looks at her from behind his computer "What problem?"

"The list of artifacts we found in Hutchford's warehouse a couple of months ago. It doesn't fit the list from HPD. I can't file it like this".

He looks at her as though she is out of her mind. Seriously? does she think a mismatched list and a potential filing error will make him feel better? He groans in frustration as she smiles at him brightly.

"What do you want me to do about it?" he asks after a pause, looking back into his computer screen.

She goes to stand behind him, and is only half surprised to see that he is looking at the daily crime report. Probably looking for a case to steal from HPD. His original attempt to politely 'borrow' a new case from the HPD chief was probably unsuccessful.

"Let's go to the archive, figure out this mismatch" she says changing position and sitting in front of him on the desk, effectively blocking his line of vision to the screen.

"Do we have to?" he asks childishly.

"Of course we don't _have_ to" she says, absentmindedly playing with his blue shirt's collar "but maybe, afterwards, we can go and practice some long range shootings... in the hills... it was raining yesterday and there's mud everywhere, so it might get a little dirty..." she adds the last part in a quiet and sensual whisper and she can see his eyes darken in response.

"It's a deal" he states jumping out of his chair "I'll get the gear, meet me in the car".

()()()

They get to HPD in twenty five minutes. When they get into the building they look for the archive's clerk and when they find him, Kono is busy explaining the problem as Steve watches the young officer looking at her admiringly.

"So you see?" Kono shows him the list "half the stuff are not even listed. We have to find the original report done by the arresting officer".

"I'm James" the officer cuts her off and extends his hand towards her.

"Kono" she says after a surprised pause and shakes his hand. "We need to make sure the list is correct before we..."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Kono" James says all smiles, not letting go of her hand.

She peers towards Steve in amusement, but when she sees his murderous expression she tries to gain back control on the situation.

"So... can we see the list?" she asks the oblivious officer.

"Why sure, Kono" James is too friendly for his health and well being "I'll show you anything you wish..." his smile is gone when Steve steps forward and puts a firm hand on the desk.

"It's Officer Kalakaua for you" he says eyeing him carefully, his right hand skimming the gun unconsciously "and you will be better off just producing the list and stop talking at this point" he advises with a threatening hiss.

"You're being ridiculous, you know" she informs him when James leaves to fetch the list. "Just... go stand over there, and try not to speak to anyone... I'll finish it here".

She is not yelling at him for his behavior, or hits him or anything, and he takes it as a good sign and goes to stand in the corner of the crowded HPD room. But if she thinks he is taking his eyes off her when she deals with this prick who is practically drooling on her, she is sadly mistaken.

He stands there, watching her like a hawk, arms crossed, when one of the detectives approaches him and stands beside him.

"McGarrett right? from Five o?" he states more than asks.

"Right" Steve answers, not even looking at the guy. And the detective is following his stare towards Kono.

"Is she one of yours?" he asks with a smile, after a pause, when they both watching Kono standing there at the clerk's desk and scanning the lists. Steve finally raises his eyes and looks suspiciously at the other guy.

"Yes... She's mine..." he answers, and the other guy must be fucking out of his mind not to notice Steve's hostile and charged glare.

"Jeez brah, how can you stay focused with this hot piece of ass around you all day?" he tries to say something else, but his next sentence is cutoff by a well targeted fist that dislocates his jaw and breaks his nose.

There is a big commotion, and people are coming to see what happened, and Kono curses silently and rashes towards the motionless body on the floor and her still annoyed boyfriend who is standing there triumphantly.

"It's my fault" she tells him above the heads of the other detectives. He is in total agreement about that, so there must be a breakthrough here, but his satisfaction is fading away when she finishes her thought "I should have listen to Danny. You absolutely need therapy".

()()()

"A ring"

"What?"

"I want you to wear a ring" he repeats calmly.

"What kind of ring?" she asks in suspicion, because he will have to start making sense soon, if he wants her to still be engaged in this conversation.

"Any ring" he clarifies. "On your ring finger. The left one". Well then, this is for sure a very exact description, she'd give him that, but she still fail to see the sense in all of this.

"Why?" she asks what she feels is a very obvious and legitimate question.

"So everyone would know..." he says exasperatedly starting to lose his patience.

"Know what?" she has no idea what he is talking about, and he is not the only one who starts to be annoyed here.

"That you are... spoken for. Off limit. And they can't hit on you, or flirt with you, or sending dirty looks at you all the time..."

"Are you drunk?" she asks suddenly. They were out drinking with Chin and Danny, and she could have sworn he had only two beers, but there has to be a simple explanation to his current declaration. She suddenly starts to suspect that it was the little note she got with the bartender's telephone number that finished him off.

"I'm not drunk" he sighs in response "trust me, it will be safer for everyone...".

Honestly, he has a point there.

()()()

"So let me get that straight. First you twist her arm into taking you to meet her family"

"I did not twist her arm, Danny"

"Was she planning on taking you there before you raised the issue?"

"Well... not necessarily, no..."

"As I was saying. First you _force_ her to take you to her family's luau, where you choose to take the opportunity and publicly declare that you are going to marry her and use her as a production machine for quite a few mini-McGarretts that will swarm the island. This, after only two weeks of sleeping together, and before you even mentioned to her of your long term plans..."

"Three weeks" Steve clarifies, but Danny is sending him a disgusted look that makes him shut up immediately.

"When you get home she realizes that you took it upon yourself to rearrange her belongings, effectively forcing her to move in without even consulting her..."

"She wasn't that bothered by this..." Steve smiles to himself.

"Was she pleased about it? did she thank you for your kindness and consideration?"

"We didn't got to talk about it actually..."

"This is a real shock to me, Steven..." Danny says in contempt.

"Then, a few days later, while _on a job_, You humiliate her in front of the entire HPD, punching a guy for making a random remark about her, because you got jealous like an animal".

"He was completely out of line, what was I supposed to do?" Steve shouts in indignation.

"Normal people express themselves with words Steven. I thought we covered that already".

"It was more efficient this way. Trust me" Steve states dryly.

"You are out of your mind" Danny states the obvious. and Steve counts his blessings for neglecting to mention the ring debacle...

"I mean, what are you doing exactly?" Danny looks at him in worry. "You are practically ruining the whole things with your bare hands".

"I know". Steve says quietly concentrating on the road in front of him.

"Have you had enough? is that it? you want out?" Danny asks after a few seconds "Because, with Kono, you will not be able pull the same shit you pulled with Catherine...".

Steve stops the car and they just sit there for a while, looking at the distant coast line.

"I love her" he says at last. "I want to be with her all the time, I want to fucking marry her, and have lots of kids with her, and live in my parent's house, and fight with her, and tidy up after her, and spend time with all the hundreds of people in her family, but..."

"She's too young".

"Yes".

"And she works for you".

"Yes".

"So you're afraid she'll say no..."

"No" Steve looks at him in surprise "I'm afraid she'd say yes".

()()()

"A ring?"

"A ring"

"What kind of ring?"

"Any kind of ring" she says with a humph, because frankly, she doesn't know more than that.

"And he want you to wear it as a symbol of your connection to him?"

"Something like that" She gulps the rest of her beer and signals the waitress to bring her another one.

"Will he get you this ring?" Kally asks in confusion.

"I have no idea" she shrugs.

"Is this like an engagement ring?" Kally tries again.

"I don't know" Kono looks at her thoughtfully "I'm not sure Steve knows what an engagement ring is".

"Will you take it?" Kally continues with her interrogation "I mean, if he offers an engagement ring, will you say yes?"

The waitress brings her new beer and takes her time cleaning the table and clearing the empty bottles, and they just sit there looking at each other with Kally's question hanging between them, and when the waitress moves away, an answer is warranted.

"I am not the type of girl to just sit and wait for someone to pop the question. If I wanted to marry him, I would have asked him myself" she says at last. Kally is not surprised with this outburst of independence, she watches Kono's determined expression with a knowing smile. "And anyways, Steve will never ask. He will do everything he can to avoid talking about something like that. I mean, I already told him I loved him and he never responded. He probably just wants to avoid punching half the population on the island so he can concentrate better on his job...".


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:** Another huge thank you to everyone who has reviewed, fav'd and alerted this story. Your kind responses are the best part of the writing process.

I am not completely sure about this one. Please tell me what you think.

* * *

He blames it on everybody. The fucking SEAL team, the US fucking navy, the god damn government, the governor, HPD and at least a dozen more organizations and military units that he can't think of right at this moment. Because he took a fucking oath and gave his word and promised to be available and answer the call when it came, and run to which ever hell hole they wanted him in. But he didn't realize at the time that he'd have someone else to answer to when he'd pick up the phone. Didn't realize it will actually break his heart to put the few items he needed in his old duffel bag before running out the door. So basically he blames himself. And it's not even the first time. Because he is quite aware, and most conveniently reminded constantly by Danny, that he is fucking up big time, and if everything he wants will just crumble down in front of him, he most definitely got it coming.

()()()

He gets early to the office, because he can't sleep anyway and there's a limit to the number of laps he can do swimming in front of the small beach next to his home. And anyway, he should probably go over the paperwork in his office before he leaves and put everything in order, for the team to take over in his absence.

He got the call late last night. It was two in the morning when the phone rang and woke him up. "Come in the morning flight", they told him. "Get in gear, we'll pick you up when you land". "Yes sir", were his only words before disconnecting. He said it countless of times before, like a reflex. It was the first time he hated those words with all his might. He suspected it was to do with the slender figure sprawled on the bed beside him.

He leaned in and kissed her cheek tenderly.

"Leave me alone" She groaned quietly, not completely waken up "I need to sleep" She shifted in the bed turning away from him "Go take a cold shower or something...".

She was asleep again in two seconds. He was lying looking at the ceiling for a few more hours before he got up and went swimming. When he came back home she was gone. The note on the kitchen counter said "Needed my other shoes, see you at HQ, K".

()()()

"Can I see you in my office?" He says as she comes in followed by Chin and Danny. Danny is talking nonstop about the weather making both his teammates roll their eyes in irritation.

"What's up boss?" She asks as she steps in the room and he is pacing back and forth clasping his hands.

"I have to go" he tells her with a serious expression.

"I'm pretty sure you just got here" she says cautiously "Where do you have to go?"

"There's a mission... I have a mission... With my SEAL team". He stands in front of her at last.

"When?" she asks quietly. He looks at her with a weird expression. Like she is going to blow up in any minute. Does he really think she is going to make scene here? she knows what he's doing. Of his obligations. She has no problem with it. Don't let her stop him from joining his beloved team, by all means.

"I have a flight out in two hours".

"How long?" She asks, trying to sound calm and operational and not completely shaken by the extremely short notice.

"A few weeks" he says with a sigh "maybe more than just a few...".

"OK" she says after a charged pause. "Did you tell Danny?"

"No. I wanted to tell you first". He looks confused, like he isn't sure if he did the right thing.

"Good" she smiles towards him. "It's good that you told me first, as soon as you knew".

"Ahhhmmm... I actually knew last night" he admits. "They called during the night, after you fell asleep".

"You are a complete idiot" she notifies him, because she thinks he should hear about it from someone who loves him and cares for him. And if he wasn't leaving soon to go on a dangerous mission, risking his life, she would probably hurt him physically, hopefully leaving a scar, just as a reminder for the future. She opens the door and calls Danny and Chin to the room so they could plan ahead, as he bow and shakes his head.

()()()

He looks great in uniform. She'll give him that. Broad shoulders covered with the coarse material. He looks young. He steps out of his office with his bag on one shoulder barking a few more instructions to Danny before standing in front of her. She sends a tentative hand and adjusts his collar and makes sure his ranks are straight.

She takes him to the airport in her small car. And he spends the length of the ride repeating all the instructions he gave Danny and adds half a dozen more in regard to his house. She seriously considers throwing him out of the car and have him hitchhike his way to the airport, but decides to just block all his elaborated explanations on lightings, locks, mail and garden maintenance making reassuring noises in the appropriate intervals. Was he always this obsessive? probably yes. Even though she suspects he tries to use these specific topics as a way to refrain from really talking to her before he leaves. As she would like to avoid the big elephant that is crowding the small car with them as well, that's perfect actually. But then he mentions the water hose in the garden, and they stare at each other for a moment and he smiles shyly at her. He is so beautiful, and his eyes look like the ocean again, and he's a fucking idiot for leaving her. And if he gets himself killed, he should make sure they'll do a good job with it, because she will most definitely murder him for this, again...

They reach the airport and he climbs out of the small car. She wonders how he ever squeezed himself in, and they stand in front of each other looking at the terminal.

"I'll try to call" he says, but she can see he is already miles away. Thinking about things that has nothing to do with the island or Five O, or her.

"Be safe" she smiles, and he looks like he's about to leave, only he throws the bag on the ground, and crashes her to his body, his lips finds hers and he kisses her with desperate, brain shuttering, hungry kiss so that by the time he lets her go she can hardly stand. When she looks up again he is already walking away with his bag on his shoulder, never looks back.

()()()

It takes her three hours to realize the god damn tee-shirt is not in her home. It takes emptying the entire content of her closet, going over the dirty laundry basket and conducting a full and thorough search of the bedroom and the living room, that would most definitely have impressed Chin if it was a murder scene.

The god damn piece of clothing is nowhere to be found. She needs it for the game tomorrow, as they plan to go and support the home team. She never goes to these games without wearing the team's colors.

It's been happening more and more lately. Things of hers just disappear into thin air. And not just trivial things, but the things that are irreplaceable. Things that she needs, not on a regular basis, but when she does, she just can't do without. Like her football team's tee shirt, her red stilettos, the book she is in the middle of and her favorite surf board which turned out to be at Steve's actually, even though she could have sworn she never left it there in the first place. Steve... really?... he wouldn't now would he? the only thing is that he absolutely fucking would. So this is why at ten at night on a regular Tuesday she finds herself parking her car at the McGarrett's driveway and gets into the dark house. It's weird being there without him. Quiet and lonely. She tosses her keys on the kitchen counter, almost expecting him to bark towards her to hang them on the hook on the wall, only he chose to go play soldiers in the other side of the world, so there's nothing he can do about it. Maybe she will take off her shoes and throw them in the living room, just to make a point. Only she doesn't. And after a few more minutes of examining the place silently she actually picks the keys and hangs them properly on the hook.

She finds the tee shirt, as well as her favorite jeans and some other clothes, her blue earrings, her book, nine of her CD's which quite obviously means nothing to Steve with his poor excuse of a musical taste, her snickers, three bikinis, and a strange collection of kitchen appliances and dishes she would never know were missing as she tries, and succeeds, not to use the kitchen. Ever.

After careful assessment of her findings she realizes what he is trying to do. Yeah, typical, why would he ask her to move in with him if he can simply highjack her into it and hope she wouldn't notice. The embracing thing is that she actually didn't notice. She suspects he was using some kind of distraction. OK, she admits it, he probably used sex as a distraction, and it's all her fault for not noticing, but she wants to see someone else try to stay focused on the location of the pot roast dish when Steve McGarrett is kissing her breast. OK, fair enough, she actually doesn't want anyone else's breast to be kissed by Steve, but you get her meaning.

It's already late and she has all her things here anyway, not entirely accidentally, so she decides to stay the night. She has no good explanation why she stays for an additional night after that, and absolutely no clue why she finds herself sleeping there on the weekend as well. She blames it on his bed that still has his smell imbedded to the sheets, if you must know.

()()()

"No, nothing"

"Not a word?"

"Not a pip!"

"How fucking inconsiderate"

"He is probably quite busy"

"He can find the time to call"

"Maybe they have no communication means"

"Maybe he has so much fun shooting people and blowing things up that he forgot everything else"

"Danny, you are overreacting" she looks at him with amusement "he did not forget about us. Look, I'm his girlfriend, you don't see me losing my mind over this"

"You're in love with him" he tells her in contempt "of course you gonna take his side"

"I'm not going to take anyone's side, because there are no sides. He's on a mission, he can't call, and he will be back when it's over"

"If he wouldn't do anything stupid"

"He wouldn't do anything stupid"

"Really?"

"Ok, even if he would do something stupid. He will come back safe and sound. I promise" she smiles towards Danny in reassurance.

They get to Steve's house and walk to the front door. She left her binoculars behind so they have to pick it up. When they get in it takes Danny a few seconds to digest what he sees.

"He's back?"

"No" she tells him surprised " I thought we just covered that"

"It looks like he's back"

She looks around the room trying to understand what he is talking about.

"Well, he hadn't. What makes you say that?"

"Look. It's so tidy"

She looks around the house. The house is meticulously organized and neat. Everything in its proper place, Steve would be proud.

"I try to keep it the way he likes it" she says with a shrug.

"You really miss him don't you?" Danny is looking at her and smiles.

"I do" she says with a sad smile "more than I thought was possible".

"I miss him too, babe" Danny says and strokes her arm gently "I'll help you kick his ass when he's back".

()()()

When he comes back she is in the middle of the forest. She is there with a group of detectives and with Chin chasing an escaped prisoner who killed two jail wardens. So she has no cell phone connection. And she doesn't even know that he's back, because obviously, he forgot to call and just popped up in the airport and started calling everybody. So it's Danny who picks him up from the terminal and tells him what he thinks about all of this and tells him about the case. He is extremely tired, apparently, because Danny manages to take him home to change first, without too much screaming and with hardly any physical force.

()()()

They reach Steve's home and get into the dark house. Steve is taking his time scrutinizing his surroundings carefully.

"What's wrong?"

"What?"

"Why do you have aneurism face?"

"I do not have aneurism face, and please stop using this phrase"

"You look dissatisfied. Like someone stole your favorite Uzi" Danny is relentless.

"We don't use Uzi's for close combat actually, it's the most unreliable assault gun there is"

"Your mind is just full of useless information, mostly focused on killing devices. No wonder you have no room for feelings" Danny says leaning on the wall "The house looks immaculate. All tidy. Much better than when I was staying. Like no one lived here for six weeks".

"Precisely" Steve says dryly as he walk up the stairs to change his uniform.

"She should damp him" Danny says to the wall in front of him, because he feels it should be said eventually. And he's actually being kind here. She should cause permanent damage first, if you ask him".

()()()

They don't find the suspect and it will be dark soon and the radio connection is not good enough, so they head back to the makeshift control room they built down at the valley. The HPD chief is there as well as the head warden and at least a few dozens of detectives and cops and dogs when the team is back. And it's really unfortunate that it's all so crowded with people, and she is all sweaty and dirty and covered with smelly icky stuff from the forest when she comes out with Chin and the search party from behind the trees and sees Steve standing with his back towards her, looking at the map with the police chief.

She can see him standing there in his cargo pants and blue shirt, the familiar posture, with his legs wide apart and his arms crossed, the familiar build of his broad back and the unmistaken shake of his head as he listens to the debrief. They are both not so big on public display of feelings. They hardly touch each other in public actually, partly because of the tenuous position of their romantic relationship and their working relationship and partly, she suspects due to Steve's ever growing paranoia and his obsession with protecting her from his enemies. So she basically just stands there, looking at him, and can't decide what to do, when Chin pushes against her, winks at her with a smile, and walks towards him.

"We lost him" Chin is saying to the heads gathered around the map which is spread on the hood of a police car. Steve is looking up, smiling happily at Chin and searches her with his eyes. When she comes closer he watches her intensely, and his look softens when she approaches and stands beside him. They are not touching each other. Not looking at each other. Just stand there and try to concentrate on the discussion around the map. Her heart is beating so fast, she suspects if everyone would shut up, they might hear it. It takes Steve a few seconds to recuperate from seeing her, and she can swear she hears a hint of shakiness in his voice when he speaks his first word, but it all goes away quickly, and he soon takes charge on the situation, gives instructions, assumes responsibility and it's like the last six weeks never happened. Only they had. And he's back. All safe and sound and in one piece. And she looks at Danny who looks pleased as punch, rubbing his hands together and giving Steve an affectionate pat on the back once in a while, and her heart is full with so much emotions, it's lucky Chin and Steve are doing all the talking. Just give her a moment, she will catch her breath, and hold to something to steady herself, hopefully not Steve's arm who is only half an inch from her, because, you know, that might cause her to explode or something. Everything is good now. Totally fine. She is a professional after all, at least she will be again, the moment she'll remember what they were doing in the forest in the first place...

()()()

When everybody leaves they stand there together, Chin finds an excuse and goes to his bike. Danny looks like he's planning to stay for a while, Kono suspects he feels that he is entitled to Steve's attention better than she does, but Steve unmistakable sharp tone sends him on his way too, and they are left alone near her car. He doesn't say much, and she tries not to think about the fact that she is smelly and sweaty and looks like shit, and the fact that he simply crashes her in his embrace and lifts her off the ground before he breathes into her neck that he missed her, and he's sorry and that he wants to go home, helps.

()()()

He drives them to his house. It's her car, but he likes to drive, or as she might put it, is a control freak, and he spends the entire ride questioning her about all the details of the last case, and the one before it, and what happened in HQ, and what were they doing, and how was Danny, and the governor, and did they have any problems with the work or with the labs or the bloody computer, and by the time they get to his house, she is already exhausted and she has no idea what were the last six weeks like for him. They get to the house and she opens the door with her keys, and he follows her with her gear that he takes out from the trunk, and when he gets inside behind her she is tossing the keys on the kitchen counter, and turns to ask if he wants to go to the shower first, but when she follows his gaze, she can see that he looks at the tossed keys with what she can only describe as sheer mortification. "Can you hang these on the hook please?" He asks with a plea, still looking at the offensive object, and it's all comes back to her in one big wave as she throws herself into his arms and laughs at him "It's good to have you home, baby".

Before he has time to react, she takes a hold of his arm, and pulls him violently towards the stairs and the shower.

Right. _It is_ a punitive crime, but he ignores the three minutes rule this time. Because they spend the next hour in the shower _together_. And she was dirty before she went in there with him, but given the activities they were engaged in under the current, she is not quite sure she is not at least as proverbially dirty after that. When the water cools down they throw a couple of towels on themselves and go naked towards the bedroom. It's getting even messier out there, on the bed, and accidentally on the floor as well, and by the end of it, he carries her, and puts her on her side of the bed, and covers her with the thin sheet and lies besides her with a sigh of relief and satisfaction.

"I've missed you" he says after a minute.

"I've missed you too" .

"I thought about you all the time. More than I should have".

"Good. I thought about you all the time too. We all did"

"I thought you'd take the opportunity and stay here for a while..." he says sheepishly after a small pause.

"You made sure I did" she laughs. "You gave me five different sets of instructions to follow in this damn house, not to mention, brought half my stuff here, without telling me"

"Well, obviously it didn't work" he smiles at her when she keeps laughing holding his hand with her own and presses it to her lips.

"It didn't?" she smiles brightly.

"You weren't here" he tells her, and there might be a hint of disappointment there in his eyes.

"I was" she tells him "I was here every day. Slept in your bed, washed in your shower, sat on the porch, I even cooked". He looks dubiously at her.

"Well. Maybe cooked is a bit of a stretch, But I reheated mom's Loco Moco".

"But..." he looks at her in confusion.

"I kept it really nice an tidy and clean. I was afraid you'll show up suddenly. You neglected to call..."

"You stayed here?" she knows that their activity in the last couple of hours caused the majority of his blood relocate south, and away from his brain, but surely, he is supposed to be much faster than that...

"I stayed" she insists "did I do something wrong?"

"No. No. Of course not" he says quickly elevating himself on his right elbow and looks at her seriously for a few moments. "Actually... would you like to make it official?"

"Excuse me?" she asks in confusion, suddenly remembering the whole ring discussion from ages ago.

"Want to move in?" He looks at her with excited intensity. Holly shit, did he just let her participate on one of their real life decisions? definitely his brain is damaged. She tries to act as casual as she can and seize the opportunity.

"Will I have to cook?"

"No" he says it too quickly than politeness should allow.

"To clean?"

"No"

"Will you look at me like I killed your puppy every time I'd throw my shoes in the living room, or leave the keys on the counter?"

"No"

she looks dubiously at him. "Well, Probably yes" He confesses.

There's a short pause when she thinks about it, and he hardly breathes, and then she shrugs and say "sure baby. I'll move in with you.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: **Thank you all for your kind reviews and sweet encouragements, I appreciate every single one of you who took the time to read, and especially you, who took the trouble to leave me a few words, this means a lot.

* * *

"We're moving in together"

"You and Kono?"

"Of course me and Kono. Who did you think, me and Chin?"

"What makes you think that you are?" Danny looks suspiciously at the arrogantly happy Steve.

"What do you mean what makes me think... we've decided"

"I know you'd like to think so Steven... did she actually say yes to this?"

"Of course she did. Do you think I would abduct her from her home and lock her in my house?"

Danny's expression suggests that he would not pass it through Steve to actually do such a thing.

"Did you ask her specifically and she said yes?" he continues "or is it something that you concluded on your own, and again, neglected to include her in the conversation?".

"I asked her to move in and she said yes" Steve answers patiently not letting Danny ruin his good mood "she even called me baby when she said it, so you see there was no coercion".

"And when will this happy cohabitation commence?"

"Next week"

"I see"

"Are you annoyed?"

"Not at all"

"Sure?"

"Quite sure. Thank you"

"Then why don't You eat your lunch?"

"I'm not hungry"

"You're upset"

"I'm not upset Steven"

"Then, what is the matter?"

"Nothing is the matter"

"Are you jealous?"

"Look, we're here. Stop the car..."

()()()

There's a knock on the door late at night when they are cuddled together in front of the TV. Well, Kono is cuddled anyway. Steve is busy explaining at length the multiple tactical mistakes done by the assaulting team in the movie they are watching. She wonders if he realizes this is not a documentary, but decides to let it go, and to satisfy herself with watching his muscles move when he demonstrates the correct tactic the team should employ. When they open the door, it's Mary Ann who stands there unannounced and smiling. It's a nice surprise. At least Kono seems to think so. Steve is more skeptical by the looks of him. He spends half an hour interrogating her to make sure she's OK, that nothing had happened, that she is not in any kind of trouble, wasn't fired again, wasn't running away from anyone, and insists on patrolling around the house to make sure nobody followed her, before he is satisfied, and welcomes her home. When he goes to prepare the guest room for her, Kono tries to fix the damage.

"I'm sorry" she offers, looking guiltily at the young woman. "You know how he gets some times".

"Don't be sorry" Mary smiles "I can handle my brother".

She climbs up stairs after Steve "maybe you want to reconsider moving in with him, though" she calls back to Kono "I feel that it is my moral duty to try and prevent you from doing this mistake".

"I can _also_ handle your brother" she reassures... well... both of them, actually.

"I'll give you some pointers while I'm here. Don't worry" Mary Ann laughs, disappearing behind the corner. "Hey Steve" Kono hears her shout towards the guestroom "No hanky panky tonight, right? There are children in the house".

"You are the same age as Kono, Mar" he growls back at her.

"Precisely my point".

Yes. Right. Not disturbing at all.

()()()

They go to the beach with Mary Ann and Danny and Grace. The guys are down by the water front with Grace who is running around excitedly with some other kids. Steve and Danny are immersed in what looks like another one of their endless animated discussions, with Danny moving his hands a lot and Steve trying to negotiate something with a pained expression on his face.

Kono and Mary Ann lie on their beach towels lazily and watch the scene.

"So he actually asked?"

"Believe me, it was a complete shock to me too. I had no option but to say yes"

"It's must be love then" Mary Ann raises herself on her elbows watching her brother with interest "I never thought he could act that normal".

"He has his moments" Kono imitates her position, looking at her boyfriend who looks like he is having a fit, moving towards Danny and almost shake him by his shirt's collar. "Well, he had one moment...".

Danny probably says the right thing, because Steve is leaving him alone and doesn't kill him, but takes off his shirt and runs towards the sea instead.

The two women watch him for a while, and goes back to lie on the towels.

"He seems to be learning" Kono continues with their discussion "I just wish he'd stop with those ridiculous jealousy acts".

"He made a scene..." Mary Ann is not surprised.

"He punched a guy in the face, and sent him to the hospital" Kono snorts.

"Typical" Mary shakes her head "such a control freak. I mean, he should learn from you right? you are not making any scenes with all the girls who throw themselves at him"

"What girls?"

"Any girl" Mary looks surprised "You mean you didn't notice?"

"Notice what?" Kono looks puzzled.

"The way girls look at him everywhere he goes"

"What?"

"Look. He'll get out of the water soon, right?"

"Right..."

"Just look at all the girls on the beach"

When Steve comes out of the water, dripping all over, and runs his hand in his hair, she suddenly sees it. It seems like the whole beach has gone still. Every female around, and admittedly a few men as well, ogle at him in admiration. She can see some of the women point towards him, some of them smile at him and send him smoldering looks. it's like they are all watching some kind of a porn movie. Her own, private, personal porn movie, which she doesn't want to share. She looks back at Steve who seems to be quite comfortable with this, walking casually towards her, giving them a perfect view of his half naked body. There is no way he is not aware of his effect on them. Not with his constant state of high alert and the obsessive awareness he has of his surroundings.

He gets to them and she is still taken by the influence he has on those people, some of the women send her curious looks for, well probably for being with him, and she looks alarmingly back at them.

"What's wrong babe?" he asks in concern.

"Put your shirt on!" she spits at him standing up determinately, shakes her towel violently and turns towards the car "We're going home!"

"What did you do?" he asks his sister who is practically exploding with laughter beside him.

"I didn't do anything. I just explained how things are" she says, still giggling "But I think you'll find her much less tolerating towards your crazy jealousy bullshit from now on".

"Jeez, Mar..."

"She also might not let you out of the house anymore" she says joining him as he follows Kono to the car "not on your own anyway..."

"How long did you say you were staying?"

"I didn't. I think I'll stay for a while. It looks like it's getting interesting around here..."

"Perfect".

()()()

There's a new case. And it postpones everything else. They follow the trail of several bodies dumped one by one in different locations on the island. All the bodies were marked with the same type of cut around their eyes and mouths. It looks like a message. It looks like an act of a gang or other form of organized crime. The media picks up on the story, and all hell breaks loose. This is why they actually don't move in together the next week, but fix on the case instead. Steve is forced to give daily updates to the governor, who is being ambushed repeatedly by reporters, but after three days when he still, has nothing to report about, it doesn't look good.

Then, Chin finally makes a breakthrough and identify one of the bodies as an employee of a cruise ship. They discover later that this cruise ship is a front for a smuggling ship actually, and further investigation connects the ship to the Yakuza. They have full scale gang war on their hands, and they don't have a lot of information about what's happening inside the organization. The organized crime unit in HPD is even less informed than they are. And Chin is probably the only one who can make sense of the whole mess, so he takes Steve to his office and informs him that they gonna have to do some undercover work. And by the word 'they' he means Kono. Steve doesn't like a single thing about this idea, and Chin is even less thrilled about it than him, but after they stand there in front of each other in silence for a long long time, they call her in, and tell her to get ready.

()()()

She is dressed in a sparkly purple dress which clings to her body and exposes her long legs. When she walks in, she makes a purpose to stop at the entrance and to slowly scan the room with her big brown eyes, smiling slightly to herself.

He can feel the energy in the room shifts, and a strange pull of attention, and a mild decrease in the background chatter when she does that, and he wonders if this is only him she affects in this way, because she does. Every time he looks at her. But when he glances at Danny on his left and searches some of the faces of the men in the big hall, he can see the same fascination on their faces as well. He groans internally, because they are in the middle of an operation, and her life depends on his actions, and besides, he promised her to be able to tolerate men looking at her and checking her out, but he can feel the sweat trickling down his spine when he struggles to do so.

She walks down the stairs, and advances slowly towards the bar. "Can you hear me?" Steve whispers to his com, and she nods once to his voice who is coming out of the obscured ear piece she wears.

Their mark is standing in the back of the room, surrounded with guests and some women. He has two tall security guards dressed in black suits who stand behind him, and after she obtains her drink she makes her way across the room, moving elegantly in front of him. It's a gamble they take, Steve is quite aware of it. Making an approach without raising any alarms. They will have to just sit and wait and count on his girlfriend's charms. They have a strong hand, if you ask him, but he might be a bit subjective here.

()()()

He hates to wait, and he's sweet and beautiful lover seems to suffer from the same affliction, because after twenty five minutes of aimlessly walking back and forth around the room, and pushing away advances of several men, she finally has enough. She positions herself strategically in a visible place next to her target, and waits for the next man to make an approach. When a random guy comes along, and asks her to dance, she leans towards him as though to whisper something in his ear and when he bends down, she throws her wine at his face and slaps him hard. There is a small commotion, and their mark sends one of his security guards to her aid while the other is escorting the shocked guy out, with considerable determination. Their mark, Hachiro Nakamura is the one to help the flustered young woman, and replaces her drink. Within a few minutes she has a main place in his entourage and is the center of his attention. Steve and Danny are standing on the other end of the room, relieved. "The kid's good" Chin's voice comes from the com. "Marvelous" Danny adds with a laugh "the move she pulled on that poor guy was perfect. Must have practiced it on Steve or something". Chin is laughing from the other side, but Steve looks less entertained.

()()()

The evening goes on for a while, and Kono looks like she is having a great time. When it's over, Nakamura takes her to her pre-ordered hotel room, and Chin is following them with the car.

They gathered together in the hotel room after that, and when she opens the door. still clad in that bright sparkly dress, she proudly shows them Nakamura's business card and informs them of her breakfast date with him the following day.

When Chin and Danny leaves, she closes the door behind them and faces Steve with a questioning look.

"You're going to be Ok with it, right?"

"I'm going to be Ok with it"

"It's what we have to do for the job"

"It's what we have to do for the job"

"You'll be there with me"

"I will"

"And you'll hear every word"

"I will"

"And I'll have to let him touch me"

"I know"

"Maybe kiss me"

"I know"

"But I'll try to avoid it"

"Good"

"Good"

They stand there looking at each other quietly. "Will you stay and make love to me?" she asks plainly, and he stays. And he does. Quite desperately. And they say nothing more until it's morning and they get dressed and Nakamura's man is knocking on her door and escorting her down to the lobby where Chin and Danny are already waiting to follow them to their breakfast.

()()()

The governor is waiting for his daily update, so Steve is there talking to him when his teammates are handling the backup for Kono. It's not that he doesn't trust them. He does. Honestly, Chin is even more protective of her than he is, but still, he feels that he needs to be there. And watch her, not leaving her to do it alone. But when he gets to the meeting, the governor is taking his time reading all the material they have on Nakamura, and Steve try to avoid imagining himself strangling the elected official with his bare hands.

"What is wrong with you?" the governor asks suddenly.

"Nothing is wrong. I want to get back to my team"

"It sounds like a very simple stage you're doing today, why are you so stressed?"

"I'm not stressed" Steve insists.

"Did something went wrong that I need to know about?" the governor looks suspiciously at him.

"Not a thing. A simple undercover job".

"That operative of yours, the rookie, is she the one who's undercover?" Denning sits down and scrutinizes Steve from behind his desk.

"Officer Kono Kalakaua. Yes". Steve sits as well, looking steadily back at the governor.

"The one I am hearing rumors about?"

"What rumors?" Steve tries to keep his cool. This is really not the time to discuss rumors, if you ask him.

"That you're sleeping with her. Even though she's you subordinate, and you're supposed to send her on occasional dangerous undercover operations. Such as this one".

"Yes" Steve says after some consideration. "_That_ Kono Kalakaua".

"And are you?" the governor looks annoyed, rising threateningly from his chair.

"Sending her on dangerous undercover operations?" Steve asks quickly, standing up and collecting his papers "Yes. I am. And if you don't mind, I would like to get back to the active operation I'm coordinating right now". He walks towards the office door, and reaches for the handle.

"This isn't over McGarrett" the governor calls after him. "I want to talk to you about this".

"After the job is over" Steve answers before he leaves "we'll talk about everything".

"McGarrett!" the governor stops him again. "I trust you to use your head on this one. And not your..."

"Yes sir" he says quickly, stopping him from completing the sentence. Yeah. That went really well. Kono will be pissed. Big time. Probably slug the governor herself. He tries not to smile when he pictures his girlfriend smacking the governor's smiling face. Unfortunately, that might not be as inconceivable scenario as you might imagine.

()()()

It's taking a few more tedious dates, in different overpriced restaurants on the island, for Kono to charm her way to Nakamura's residence. Danny and Steve continue with the backup detail, which becomes more and more challenging as Steve's ability to contain her dining and dancing with the crime boss diminishes by the second, as well as his ability to tolerate Danny's rants about food, when they are forced to eat take away on the outside of multiple fancy restaurants.

When she is finally invited to Nakamura's house, he seriously doesn't know if to feel more relieved or more anxious.

She has to get into his office. Somehow. They need one piece of information to connect him to the ship from which came all the workers currently occupying Max's morgue. It will give them enough to call him in for an interrogation. Nobody else will talk in such a tight organization. They have to go after the boss.

Chin explains that getting into the office and planting a computer bug he created to the terminal, should be enough. How she'll get into the office, is another matter. They will have to count on Kono's ability to improvise and be creative. Danny mentions her whole relationship with their team leader is one big improvisation anyway, so she should be totally fine, but both Kono and Steve fail to see the humor in this. Danny states that before she started sleeping with that emotionally challenged Neanderthal superSEAL, she actually used to have a sense of humor, but the fact that both of them are skimming their hands over their guns convinces him to shut up finally.

()()()

"You look beautiful" Mary Ann says stretching on the bed in the hotel room when Kono is preparing for her visit to Nakamura's house.

"Thanks, Mar" she smiles towards her through the mirror.

"You'll make a beautiful bride someday"

"You _are_ aware we're not getting married any time soon, right?" Kono is laughing at her, trying to obscure the blush that is spreading on her face. She has to admit that Mary's remark is not unflattering.

"Of course you're going to get married" Mary Ann insists "I know my brother. He's serious about you. He made his decision, he's just trying to be careful and not forcing you into it too quickly. I have to admit I'm quite impressed by he's ability to wait for so long without snapping".

"Long?" Kono looks at her incredulously "We're supposed to move in together after less than ten weeks. Six of which we actually spent apart. I mean, if we're talking time here, he should probably move in with one of his SEAL buddies, instead"

"Nah" Mary Ann plays with Kono's com set that is tossed on the bed beside her "He tried that for quite a few years. I don't think that he finds smelly soldiers' feet as appealing as you. And anyway, he needs you to make children with. He probably mentioned that".

"Indirectly... yes... but..."

"He wants three"

"Three what?"

"Three kids. Preferably boys, but he'll be fine either way"

"Wow... that's... really... specific"

"He probably has it all figured out by now. Maybe even written down somewhere" Mary Ann says offhandedly.

"You're serious!" Kono turns to look at her with astonishment, hands on her hips.

"Like a heart attack" Mary says.

"Don't worry. He'll probably fill you in as soon as he get you... you know... quarantined in the house".

"Do you think, that at any point he will actually ask me what _I_ want?" Kono asks with a sigh.

"Well. Only if he'd think it will change anything. Why? what _do_ you want?"

She can't really answer this one. Because she never really thought about it. She was just drifting away until now, with him, swept away by emotions and desire. And she looks at Mary Ann who smiles weirdly at her, and tries to formulate an answer when the door opens and he's coming in, in all his glory. He is dressed with his regular cargo pants and a tight black tee-shirt which clings to his muscular arms and broad chest, and he looks at the both of them like he knows he's interrupting something.

"Ready?" he asks the million dollar question. And Mary Ann is looking at her with a curious smile when present and future get mixed together suddenly.

"I'm ready" she tells him as she adjusts her ear piece carefully "Let's do it".


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N:** Thank you all for reading and following this story. I am grateful for the people who took the time to leave me some words.

I have a rough idea of where I want this story to go, so although this chapter is probably a bit more serious than the rest, please bare with me.

I tried to keep the fun in, even when there are bad things that happen to some people. I hope I managed to do this without damaging the seriousness of the events. I tried to keep the balance, because I think that they are all good friends and has their specific jokes and digs, even when things are not going well. Steve is, obviously the one who lacks the humor in this case, because, let's face it, he lacks humor, and way to intense in a normal day...

Anyway, hope you'd like it. Please let me know what you think. I appreciate your ideas and inputs, and I always try to incorporate your views in my work if possible

* * *

They all blame each other. Her family, her teammates, the governor, the god damn press, everyone has something clever to say. And she just knows they will all blame Steve at the end of it. Fuck, even Steve is going to blame Steve at the end of it. And it's really unnecessary. Really. Because she will gladly take the blame on herself. Gladly. if it only means she could get rid of this fucking god damn pain in her stomach. Jeez! Why does it have to hurt so much? And she can't go surfing, or walk straight, or laugh, or even sit up in the chair, or eat properly. And for this she actually _can _blame Steve! The overprotective prick. Being completely irrational. Will it fucking kill him to let her eat some ice cream?

()()()

She doesn't exactly get into Nakamura's office. When she dines with him at his home, they make the governor call him and invite him to a formal dinner at the governor's mansion. The arrangements has to be made directly with the master of the house, as the governor insists, and when Nakamura is walking towards his office to respond to the phone call she moves behind him and makes sure she can recognize the room.

When she excuses herself later, to go to the bathroom, she takes the opportunity to explain to Steve and Danny that are listening, that it is the large room in the east side of the house, facing the garden. She can't make it in there alone without raising suspicion, because apparently there is a security guard assigned to the room. so she throws the small bug Chin made through the bathroom window, where it is collected by Steve, who climbs the wall and gets into Nakamura's office to download it into the driver. Chin operates the small gadget remotely, and signals to Steve the OK.

He's just about to jump out the window again, when the god damn security guard steps in. The noise from their fight reaches the rest of the house, and people are running and drawing guns, and after Steve is throwing off his attacker and tries to move towards the window again, there is another guard who points his weapon towards him and shoots. The bullet grazes Steve's neck when Kono jumps the shooter and diverts his shot, and there are more fights and more shots when the guard tries to fight Kono off, and by the end of it all, Steve is standing there in the middle of the room, after crashing the head of Kono's attacker to the wall, and looks down at Kono who lies there on the floor, shot in the stomach and getting paler by the second.

()()()

It takes two doctors, three nurses and a hospital security officer to separate him from her gurney. She is rolled towards the operation room, and he is left there standing in front of the closed doors covered with her blood. When Danny and Chin arrive, he is still standing there not saying a word, until Danny shakes him forcefully and sits him down on a chair and gets a nurse to take care of the gush in his neck.

()()()

He looks at Chin from across the room where they sit facing each other.

"She'll be fine" Chin says quietly to the younger man.

"Of course she will" Steve answers. But they both look at the amount of blood on Steve's clothes which suggests a different story.

When Kono's parents arrive it's awkward again. Walking purposefully into the suddenly much too small waiting room, they look at the team, and their eyes stop on Steve's bloody clothes.

"You're hurt too!" her mother states in alarm.

"I'm fine" he says, looking embarrassed " It's not my..." he stops as they all realize what he is saying and Kono's mother looks mortified.

"There are going to be quite a lot of people here, soon" her father says at last in the tensed silence. "I think you should go change. now."

"He's going" Danny steps in and pulls the dumbstruck Steve with him "he has clean clothes in the car".

Steve lets him drag him to the car outside, without a word.

"So... did I just meet your in-laws?" Danny asks with a mischievous grin.

"What?"

"Kono's parents" he explains again "your future in laws"

"I don't..." Steve looks at Danny like he lost his mind.

"That actually makes me extremely confident" Danny continues with an obvious satisfaction "Now I believe there's an order in the universe. Poetic justice, if you please..."

"Danny, what the hell are you talking about?"

"Kono's parents" he smiles brightly again "they are perfect. They will make you kneel down and beg for mercy. It's going to be beautiful"

"I..."

"you see?" Danny puts his hand on Steve's shoulder and taps it affectionately " this is how I know she would be fine. She is too good a person to prevent me from seeing you eat shit from her mother for the next 40 years..."

()()()

When they get back to the waiting room there are at least thirty people there. sitting and standing and talking to each other noisily. When Danny and Steve step in, the noise stops suddenly and they all look at Steve in silence. There is a tangible tightness in the room, which makes him remember his first scary encounter with her overbearing family, with what he can only describe as a weird sense of nostalgia.

He stands there with all of them glaring at him for at least three hours more, until the doctor steps out from the operation room and asks to speak with the family.

"You'll have to be more specific" Danny suggests to the perplexed physician from around the corner, but before the doctor can make sense of the big crowd, Mrs. Kalakaua steps forward, grabs his arm and yanks him back towards the closed doors "Take us to see our daughter, young man" she orders. When he opens the door, and just as they step in she shouts out "what are you waiting for commander? a written invitation? you too Chin ho. Move yourself over here".

()()()

They stand in silence around her bed. She lies there hooked to different lines and monitors looking pale but peaceful. The doctor explains that the operation went well and that she is going to be just fine. That there was no damage to any major organ and that apart from a mild risk of infection she slowly but surely will be back on her feet. Chin looks relieved, but the others looks more skeptical. There's a tangible hostility radiating from both Kono's mother and Steve, and the doctor makes an unconscious move away from them. It looks like they're going to argue, or go there and take the blanket off to take a look for themselves, but luckily the head nurse steps in and chases everyone out.

"I'm going to allow one person with her" she says to them in a voice that leaves no room for arguments.

"I'm staying" Steve says quickly, staring at her mother steadily. There's a short period of time when everyone is still, and her mother opens her mouth to say something, but Kono's father lays a big hand on top of her shoulder, and she stops. Nodding once towards her daughter's lover she makes her way out of the room, and says "Fine. I'll come to replace you in the morning". Chin ho and Mr. Kalakaua leave after her.

He stands there alone, looking at her quietly for another ten minutes, until the nurse has enough, brings a chair and makes him sit in it. And he does, for the rest of the night, just waiting.

()()()

She wakes up with a bitter taste in her mouth. There is an annoying beeping sound from somewhere, and she tries to remember why the hell would she use an alarm clock. Sleeping with Steve has its disadvantages, like being waken up in the early morning, and forced into his crazy exercising routine of running and swimming. She doesn't need an alarm clock anymore, his over stimulated personality is quite enough. She tried to negotiate the type of physical exercise once, just as an experiment. She had only moderate success with surfing, and some... very encouraging results with sex... Curiously enough, she had fewer objections to the early awakenings, since.

She opens her eyes and looks confused at the strange sight of white linen and IV lines. She sees Steve sleeping uncomfortably in the chair in front of her, and it all comes back to her at once.

"Did we get him?" she calls out trying to sit up much too quickly, and lets out a scream due to the agonizing pain in her stomach.

"What happened?" he wakes up and leaps from his chair.

"Oww! fuck! nothing happened... Did we get him?"

"HPD has him. They're running the interrogation now" he rubs his hands over his face trying to regain his composure.

"You mean, you don't even know?" she tries to change her position and reach for the glass of water on the bedside table, but the pain prevents her from doing so.

"I was busy..." he growls.

"For god's sake" she rolls her eyes in irritation "as you can see, I am perfectly Ok"

"Yeah. I can see that" he looks annoyingly at her "we can probably go surfing right now, I should have brought your swimsuit".

She comes up blank with a good response to that one, and they just sit there looking angrily at one another. The fear and stress that were built in the last day comes out as a tempest of rage and frustration, but a second before they start shouting, Kono's mother steps in and smiles happily towards her daughter.

"Are you OK?" she asks sitting carefully on the bed and stroking her daughter's hair.

"I'm fine" she answers, grateful for her mother's appearance.

"What's wrong?" Mrs. Kalakaua can't be fooled.

"Nothing. I'm a little sore" she diverts, smiling tenderly at the worried woman.

"Did you have a good night, darling?" she asks, caressing Kono's head.

"I think so..." Kono answers. "I'm fine mom..." her mother's dubious look, has her roll her eyes again, but she really tries to hide it this time.

"Did you sleep?" Mrs. Kalakaua turns her attention to Steve who sits with his face in his hands, looks exhausted.

"Some" he says reassuringly "I'm fine". He stands up to let her sit in his place.

"Go home!" she tells him, getting up of the bed and starting to take things out of an oversized basket she brought with her "get some sleep, go to work, eat, and come back here in the evening. _By then, she will learn how to behave towards people who cares for her_" she adds looking pointedly at Kono.

"I told you, I'm fine" Steve says again. "It's fine" he tells Kono in a quieter tone, but she is looking at the sheets and avoids his eyes.

"Was there a question mark at the end of my sentence, sailor?" Mrs. Kalakaua asks sharply.

"No ma 'am!" he says quickly, stretching himself reflexively.

"Then, why are you still here?"

It looks like the conversation is over, and Kono's mother is already preoccupied with presenting her daughter with all the stuff she brought, clean clothes and a hair brush and other unidentified objects that he doesn't know what to make of. He runs his hand in his hair again, and says "fine. I'll see you later, babe" and runs out before she has a chance to answer.

When he steps outside to the corridor he sees Mary Ann running towards him.

"Oh my god, Steve!" she hugs him tightly "why didn't you call me? I was worried sick, and I only found out from Danny this morning. Is she OK?"

Oh shit, he completely forgot about her. And she was worried , and she is so sweet to care and come running here and hug him like this.

"Is she alright?" Mary Ann asks again with mild apprehension when she sees his eyes shining with a thin layer of unshed tears.

"Yes, Mar. She's fine" he smiles towards his sister, grateful for her presence.

"Good" she says, distancing herself from him "so I can show you what it feels to be left alone without knowing" she slams her fists into his abdomen "you inconsiderate prick".

She storms into the unit to search for Kono, and he stands there gasping for air. It wasn't strong, but it was precise. He thanks his luck that Danny wasn't there. He would never hear the end of it if he was.

()()()

He calls Danny and assign him to help HPD with the case. Then, he calls Chin and instruct him to continue with assessing the data he retrieved from the computer. He spends almost an hour on the phone with the HPD chief, hearing about the case, discovering there was no progress, and that the entire case is completely blown. He goes over there and try to help with the interrogation but, it doesn't look good. When he can't avoid it anymore, he calls the governor and gets a long and elaborated speech about the disaster the operation created. He listens patiently and agrees to meet the governor tomorrow morning and participate in a press conference that will be held after what looks like the unpreventable release of Nakamura from jail. He doesn't mention Kono, and neither does the governor, but at the end of the conversation he is kindly reminded that they still need to talk about something, and he is expected to be able to do that on their meeting. He has a bad feeling about it, which he tries to ignore.

He goes home to the shower, and sleeps for an hour or two, and when he wakes up he goes swimming, and packs a small bag with Kono's book, her ipod and her perfume. He takes one of his tee shirts from the closet, the one she likes to sleep in, and put it in the bag as well.

()()()

When he gets to the hospital she is out of the unit and in a regular room. She is sleeping again and Mary Ann, Chin and Danny are there, sitting and playing cards quietly at the far side of the room.

"You look like shit" Danny notifies him.

"Thanks"

"She's doing great. Just tired" Chin says when he sees Steve's look scanning Kono's limp body.

"She is not doing great. They didn't let her eat anything, so she's pissed" Mary Ann corrects.

"She told them she will go home, if they don't let her eat" Danny adds. "They thought she was being cute".

"She might actually do it" Steve says tiredly, sitting in the vacant chair.

"This is why you're staying". Danny says to him "her mother said, if you let her leave against medical advice, she will have your head"

"She said that?"

"I'm rephrasing a little... ".

"I'll do my best" he says looking at her without conviction.

They leave him there. Chin is kissing his sleeping cousin gently and Danny squeezes his shoulder reassuringly. Before she leaves, Mary Ann leans behind her brother hugs his shoulders and kisses his temple. "Good night, Steve" she says as she ruffles his hair. He looks after her when she closes the door behind them, and when he turns his gaze back towards the bed he sees a pair of brown eyes looking at him with a dimpled smile.

"If you promise to be quiet and not to touch my stomach too much, I'll let you sleep with me in the bed" she winks at him.

He contemplates it for a second or two, and then takes off his shoes and slowly lifts her off the bed and lies her carefully on top of him. She bites his shoulder to stifle her scream when her muscles are pulled with his actions, and he almost drops her down. When he looks at her, horrified, she is smiling again and relaxes against him, making those purring sounds of contentment he finds so adorable.

()()()

"How is your officer?" the governor asks when they come back from the press conference.

"She's better, thanks"

"I should probably go visit her"

"She will be home soon, I don't think there's any need for that..." Steve answers hurriedly.

"Is home... your home?"

"No" Steve answer truthfully. But after thinking about it for a few moments, decides to come clean "Not yet".

"So it's true" the governor sighs

"I'm afraid so"

"Do I have to explain to you, how wrong this is?"

"Let me assure you, sir, that there is no problem with..." Steve starts to explain

"Look Steve, I have no doubt that you two know what you're doing. And I can't deny the high abilities you and your team have. You are all professionals, I'm sure. But the fact is, there is going to be a lot of heat coming towards five O now. And the media is involved. And when I said no immunity, I meant it. You have two options".

"I know" Steve states dryly.

"Now she's hurt, and on leave. When she's back, I trust you to make your decision".

()()()

"It wasn't that bad" Danny remarks, when Steve comes back to the car.

"It wasn't good"

"We still have Chin's information, we'll continue with the investigation on the intelligence level"

"Yes..."

"What's wrong?"

"The governor knows about Kono and me"

"And...?"

"He's... unhappy"

"Unhappy how..."

"Less happy than Chin was"

"That's practically being miserable..." Danny mumbles.

"I have two options"

"Remove Kono from your bed, or remove her from five O..."

"Yeah"

Danny is reaching to his phone.

"Where are you calling?"

"The security officer at the governor's mansion. When Kono finds out about it, they would want to be ready".


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: **Well, this is the final chapter. A bit longer than usual. I hope you enjoyed the story. It was my first attempt in H5O fiction, and my first attempt in multi chapter story. Your reviews and kind words made it such a special experience, and I am in debt to each one of you.

I will probably try to write another story before the third season. I am quite worried about the writers' plans for the next season, and the prospects of seeing Steve and Kono together in the show are looking grim... But we could still hope, right?

Thanks again from the bottom of my heart, for all of you who showed interest, followed and reviewed this story.

* * *

He has ten Hawaiian women in his home when he gets back from work. He opens the door and there is so much noise, he automatically reaches for his gun. When he takes a better look, there are three elderly women sitting in the living room, speaking simultaneously to Kono who lies on the sofa and nods vigorously, and at least five more in the kitchen and in the dining room area. The five women are occupied with cooking, and arranging things. His cupboards are being opened and closed repeatedly, and different things are being taken out and put back in them without any sensible order.

Kono's mother is the one orchestrating everything, ordering everyone around and corrects what they do. He is usually quite good with basic Hawaiian, but at this point he can hardly understand the English words spoken, and it looks like all the women speak at the same time, in a big and deafening cacophony. He steps into the living room, to announce his presence, but it seems like they all much too absorbed in their noisy world to notice.

It's Kono who finally notices him, smiles brightly from the sofa, and signals him over. He bends down, to give her a peck on the cheek, and the three old aunts who sit there stop talking and look at him curiously. He ignores them completely when he feels Kono's breath tickling his ear and he raises his head to look at her in amusement.

"I can see you have visitors" he whispers to her, still leaning close.

"You are so observant" she smiles "I can see why you make such a good detective".

"Will they be staying long?" he asks quietly, fixing his eyes on her mouth, and makes a small gesture towards her lips.

"Hold your horses, commander" she pushes him away laughing "first, my mom wants to talk to you".

"Oh shit..."

"Don't worry, too many witnesses, she won't hurt you"

"They are all relatives" he groans, looking suspiciously around him.

"You're right" she looks at the full house around them "take your gun with you, and stay where I can see you..."

He smiles towards her, but she looks too serious for it to be a joke, and he swallows hard before he stands up and walks towards the kitchen.

()()()

"There you are"

"There I am" he looks around him, absorbing the big an awful mess that once was his clean and organized kitchen.

"I need to talk to you" she tells him drying her hands on an apron. Does he have an apron? he is quite sure he doesn't. When she pulls him out of the kitchen and towards the lanai he sees a big ceramic plate, a juice maker and a new set of kitchen towels that doesn't belong to him either.

"She wants to go back to work" her mother says it like it's some kind of disaster. Actually it is a disaster, he couldn't agree more.

"I know"

"She is not well yet"

"I know. She still has pain and needs to get her strength back first" he answers quickly.

"So you're going to prevent it?" her mother looks at him in anticipation and hope.

"As long as I can" he tells her reassuringly.

"She will ask you to go back, and concentrate on office work"

"Not gonna happen" he states simply.

"She will suggest to do paperwork for the whole team"

"Not gonna let her" he says again.

"She will do all she can do to persuade you otherwise" her mother looks at him dubiously.

"I promise you, I will not let her back for as long as I can" he says it with as much conviction he can master, to get her to trust him.

"I don't know..." Mrs. Kalakaua crosses her arms and shakes her head at his confidence.

"You don't trust me?" he asks in amusement "I am a very determined guy".

"I'm sure that you are" she says sighing "but I saw her influence on you. One look from her, and you'd cave in completely"

"Look, I..."

"Face it Steve, she will ask you to let her back, and she will smile at you, or worse, get naked or touch you, and it's all done, we both know it, and Kono knows it too"

He can't argue with that, not convincingly anyway, because he suspects it's true. But he knows something she doesn't.

"The governor knows about us". He tells Kono's mother quietly "I need to keep her out of Five O, if I want to be with her. For now, anyway... so you see, I won't let her back for as long as I can..."

"Oh Steve..." her mother suddenly realizes what he's saying.

"Please don't tell her" he looks pleadingly at her.

"I won't, darling" she reaches and strokes his cheek gently and he flinches a little bit at the unanticipated gentle touch. After a few seconds, when they look at each other in alliance, she finally lets go, and turns back to the Kitchen.

"By the way, we had to make some changes to your kitchen" she calls back when he stands there trying to make sense of the strange sensation she caused, "it was poorly organized. And Kono's dad will come tomorrow to help fix the ceiling and the stairs. This house needs a lot of work if you want my daughter to live in it".

Great. Just fucking great. He knows he promised to be nice to her family, and be polite and pleasant, but there has to be a limit. Right? He's own fucking house, for example. He walks back to the living room and sees Kono talking to her aunts again, smiling and laughing, sprawled on his sofa, and he realizes that for better or worse, there probably is no limit.

()()()

"They got a hold of the house"

"They got what?"

"They have full control now. It's completely out of my hands"

"Why?"

"I have no idea. I think they play mind games with me or something"

"Wait. When you say they... who are they?"

"Well, Kono's family. Her mother, her aunts, her cousins. Even her father. I really thought I was getting along with him, until he started too"

"Started what?"

"He decided to fix my ceiling"

"The bastard!" Danny feigns shock.

"Don't do that. My ceiling is completely fine. I just fixed it, after that shootout..."

"And you did a crappy job at it" Danny reminds him.

"I did not. It's absolutely not a crappy job!" Steve says insulted.

"Give me a break. You wanted to save money and you did the work yourself. Jeez, You even scrimped on the wood"

"I did not!"

"You did. You really are a stingy person."

"No I'm not" Steve protests.

"You totally are. You never pay when we go out, you buy parts for your car on the internet, you buy only necessary and simple food. God knows you don't buy descent clothes. You have, what? two maybe three pairs of cargo pants, and six matching blue tee shirts? You probably the worse person to have dinner with. God, I have no idea how you ever got Kono to go out with you in the first place"

"I don't think we actually, did get out... I think we ate in most of the time..."

"That's because you're stingy!" Danny declares his point again. "At least you don't make her cook for you..."

"Of course I don't. Don't be ridiculous..." both men are smiling at the surrealistic scenario.

"You should feel nice about it. She feels comfortable at your place, and invites her family over. I mean, wasn't that all the purpose? for her to feel at home at your house?"

"Yes, Danny, it was. But it was most certainly not about making her family feel comfortable there... "

()()()

It's really late when he comes home that night. The new case takes a lot of running around and chasing leads around the island. It's a difficult case, and they are a man short. Well... a woman short, to make it more specific. And he really has no energy to face a crowded messy and noisy house again. He releases a breath of relief when he opens the door to find the house quiet and empty. Well, not entirely empty, because obviously the same woman he's been missing miserably all day is sitting in the living room listening to some music on her iPod. She has her eyes closed, and she shakes her head with the rhythm and smile her delicious smile to herself. He stands there just watching her for a while, his eyes linger on her body, when she suddenly opens her eyes and catches him in the middle of his musing. They watch each other , smiling stupidly at one another, when he suddenly reach towards her and take her off the couch. He hugs and kisses her violently and she ties her legs around his waist, as he supports her weight with one hand and hold her neck with the other, deepening the kiss. There is no sound except the sound of breathing and kissing and he puts her on the floor, tagging at her clothes, and discarding his. When skin touches skin, she whimpers at his touch, and he groans into her neck as they start moving together, frantically, until they come together and she screams his name, collapsing on the living room floor.

They lie there naked, recovering their breaths, washed in the afterglow. His head is on her chest, and she is stroking his hair gently when he sends a tentative hand to touch the small scar on her abdomen. It is still there, a rude reminder of her injury, and the pink marking is such a contradiction to her bronze like skin, it makes him realize how close they were to... well...

"It will fade away eventually" she tells him, as if she can read his mind.

"You can have a tattoo on it" he suggests, trying to ignore the deeper meaning of her statement "just to cover it up".

"Nah... " she dismisses "scars are great. They're like tattoos, only with better stories..."

"I thought you liked my tattoos" he looks up questioningly.

"I love them" she tells him, smiling and kissing his nose. "I love everything about your body". It probably shouldn't affect him they way it does, but it gets him ready to do what they just did all over again. So they do. But he makes sure they'll get to the bedroom this time.

()()()

"I want to go back" she tells him when they lie together in his bed, his face buried in the crook of her neck and his hand is hugging her waist.

"You're not well enough" he mumbles sleepily. This precise conversation has been going on for the last three weeks.

"I think I just proven, I _am_ well enough..." she turns her head and whispers to him.

"You still have pain, and you are not back in shape yet. You gotta take it slow baby" he repeats his words, word for word from the previous discussions.

"I am running and surfing again" she turns and moves away from beneath him to make her point "I don't even have to go back to active duty. I am willing to do some paperwork if you want. Just get me out of the house, because I'm losing my mind here".

He sees the silent plea in her eyes. There is nothing he wants more than have her back with him on the team, instead of looking longingly at her empty office every single day. But he has to look at the bigger picture, and although he had some discussion with the governor, to try to assess the situation and see if he can manage to change his mind, the governor is still resolved to put this obstacle, and he needs more time to try and solve it.

"I know it's hard for you, baby..."

"Please Steve..." she looks at him with her big brown eyes, and he can feel himself caving in. Her mother will be pleased to know her predictions were true.

"You'll get medical clearance from the doctor, and we'll talk about it" he gives up finally.

"Great!" she is so happy, her dimples are back, and she tries to prove him how well she is, and how grateful, and when he is moaning again with her touch, it seems like he got the message.

()()()

Two days later, when he comes home, she jumps him at the door, kisses him and shows him an official medical clearance. He manages to persuade her to come back only when the current case is done, but it takes him half the night. Before he falls asleep, he holds her as she lies exhausted on his chest, and he thinks that he might actually miss these negotiations in the future" .

()()()

He gets to HQ in the late afternoon, and sees her sitting on the desk in Danny's office. Chin is there too, and the all team is united again. He stops for a second, seeing his little family laughing together and a weird sense of calmness surrounds him for the first time since she got hurt. Until he realizes she is not supposed to be there, and that there might be consequences to her actions. Bad consequences.

"What are you doing here?" he asks in alarm walking into the office.

"I work here" she reminds him kindly, because it looks like he forgot.

"You're on leave"

"Not anymore" she smiles "remember the medical clearance? and Daniel here was kind enough to inform me that you wrapped up the case yesterday. So I'm back!" she smiles triumphantly. they all smile. Even Danny the fucking traitor who he's going to kill, by the end of working hours, today.

"You can't be here" he insists and makes a movement towards her to pull her out.

"What are you doing?" she looks confused "what's wrong with you?"

"She can't be here" he looks desperately at Chin and Danny.

"You probably shouldn't be here, babe" Danny says to her, to Steve's great relief. "There are still some issues we need to figure out before you come back".

"What issues?" she looks around her in astonishment, because it looks like when she was gone, her teammates suffered some kind of a mental meltdown. "Chin?"

"The governor found out about you and Steve. He wants you out of Five O, or for you and Steve to... terminate your relationship... it's supposed to be Steve's choice..."

He looks apologetically at Steve, but they all know he will never lie to his cousin.

"Since when have you known about this?" she asks Steve quietly, she is beyond shocked right now.

"The day you got shot" he says, looking at her steadily but unconsciously, making a small adjustment to his posture to defend himself.

"And you chose not to tell me because..." she is still quiet, but he can recognize the tone. It's the tone she uses when she is just about to yell at him, or throw something. He still has that scar caused by the flying salt shaker on his forehead. She was always such a good shot.

"You were hurt, you had to focus on getting better. I didn't want you to know" he explains patiently.

"But you let Danny and Chin know..."

"Yes" Danny and Chin are starting to make their way out of the room, but Steve catches them do it. "Don't move" he barks towards them. He tells himself he wants them there to help explain, but they all know he's too afraid to stay with her alone in the room.

"Does everyone know?"

"Well..."

"Now you gonna tell me that my family knows as well..."

"Well..."

"Are you kidding me?"

"Your mom asked. You know how she is... I can't keep something like this from her"

"You had no problem keeping it from me... that's... oh god, I'm so humiliated..."

"Baby..." he reaches his hand towards her when she says it, because that was not his intention when he did it. But she takes her keys and walks towards the door leaving them there exchanging worried looks.

"Where are you going?" he calls after her, horrified.

"To the governor!" she doesn't even look back.

Fuck!

"Wait!" he runs after her, but she gets to the elevator first and the doors close in front of him. He runs down the stairs cursing the whole time, and reaches the parking lot a second after her. He jumps into the passenger seat of her car when she's already pulled out of her parking spot.

"Kono, wait... let's talk about it"

"Oh, I'm definitely going to talk about it. To the governor" she notifies him with an unhappy smile.

"What are you going to tell him that I didn't?" he shouts in frustration "I'm trying to reason with him for the last month..."

"What exactly did you try?" she looks at him in contempt. "because it looks like you did a crappy job"

"I was willing to do everything. Whatever he want. Sell my soul, sell the team, I would have given up my first born for him, if he was willing..."

She looks at him like he's a fucking idiot "considering the fact that _your_ first born, will probably be _my_ first born, I don't see how it improves my situation here..." she watches the road, shaking her head.

"Really?" he stops fighting, in mild shock with her declaration.

"What?" she looks at him, sensing the change in his tone, when she sees his big blue eyes looking at her with awe, she thinks she might be missing something crucial "What's wrong with you?" she asks curious, because he looks so emotionally shaken, it's getting her worried.

"Do you mean it?" he asks quietly.

"Mean what?" she has no idea what he is talking about, they were in the middle of a very important fight, normally he gives their fights his best efforts before he gives up. Because, let's face it, usually he is the one to give up...

"Having a baby with me..." and now she gets it.

There's a strange quiet in the speeding car, when she tries to come up with an answer.

"If you let the governor separate us, or kick me out of Five O, I'll be forced to do some permanent damage to a very specific part of your anatomy. A part that might be related, in a way, to the procreation process. So, as you can see, this is completely up to you... are we clear?" she looks at him pointedly.

"Cristal!" he says, sitting back straight in his seat. Satisfied.

She takes a glance at his smiling face, when they reach the governor's office, and rolls her eyes at his familiar confident arrogance. He should really change his priorities. Fast.

()()()

She barges into the governor's office before he has time to prevent it, so he just follows her in to find her standing in front of the man's desk tapping her foot. She looks dangerous, and the governor sends a questioning look towards Steve, who just shrugs. It's out of his hands now, and he knows it.

"Officer..."

"Kalakaua!" she helps him.

"Officer Kalakaua" the governor accepts her clarification "I am so glad to see that you are feeling better. Can I help you with anything?"

"No thank you" she explains politely "I came here to help you..."

She did? it's news to Steve...

"Help me with..."

"I understand that you had some problems with human resources issues in Five O". She is smiling, but Steve recognizes this smile again, and discretely tries to look for potential flying objects in her vicinity.

"I came to alert you that all personal matters in Five O are under control. And you can rest assure that there will be no problems in regard to us conducting our job"

"Will you be going back to work in Five O then?" he asks looking at her, not missing a beat.

"I will"

"Are you still... involved with Commander McGarrett?" he asks again.

"This is none of your business" she says quickly, raising her voice. But, when she hears Steve's quiet groan she adds "Sir" Because she's nice like that.

"Commander, I thought we made it clear..." the governor turns towards Steve, who has a weird sense of Deja vu from the ongoing discussions of the last month.

"Hey..." she steps forward, in a not entirely unthreatening manner "I'm making it clear right now, sir" she is getting upset now, and the governor probably had enough with her rudeness because he stands up and slams his hand on the desk. She is making one more step forward, and she is just about to launch towards the highest ranking person in the island when Steve catches her around the waist and says "Please leave the room, Kono".

"No way" she pushes him off stepping again towards the governor, and both men look at her, in apprehension.

"Officer Kalakaua!" Steve raises his voice, and she turns to look at him, to see his piercing blue eyes glaring at her "Wait outside. Now!" he says it in the most authoritative voice he can master, and he looks at her, challenging her to disobey, and she probably would have disobeyed him, embarrassing her in front of the governor like that, but when she looks carefully she can see a silent plea behind his severe expression. After a few charged seconds, she nods once, and steps out of the room in silence.

"She's something..." the governor mumbles after she walks out and the door closes behind her "I can see the appeal..."

"I will not let her go" Steve says quietly, trying to ignore the inappropriate remark towards his girlfriend.

"I believe you" the governor says. "But..."

"I will leave Five O if necessary" he says looking at the governor.

"Steve, Five O is everything you wanted. It's who you are. You built it yourself..."

"I don't want to leave" he says again "but I will, if I had to" they look at each other for a moment or two.

"This is highly irregular..." the governor says at last.

"It is..." Steve smiles. It's possible they are not talking about the same thing here...

"OK" the governor says finally, sitting back in his chair. "Just... be careful. and don't mess up too much. You will never survive a breakup from this one... "

()()()

Steve is out of the room in less than a second. He runs out, jumping two stairs at a time. He finds Kono leaning against the wall looking at her feet.

"Hey babe..." he calls when he steps near her, but he can't complete the sentence when her fist comes to contact with his jaw.

"Fuck, Kono!" he says from his new position down on the ground "there was no need for that. It's all fixed. You can come back to work, and we can still be together..." he looks up at her glaring eyes "if you still want to... that is..." he says cautiously, because he can't really read her right now.

She's all worked up and beautiful and her eyes are strong and have that special glint, and the sun caresses her features and makes her hair shine and her skin glisten...

"You see? it wasn't that hard..." she extends her hand to help him up "I should probably go back as soon as possible, you're making a mess out of the cases without me. So unprofessional..."

He wants to stand up and walk with her to the car, but he is too turned on right now to be able to do it "could you give me a minute?" he asks breathing deeply and folding his arms around his legs. "Let's talk about football or something".

"For god's sake" she huffs, starting her way towards the car on her own "I'm surrounded by armatures. I should go back and ask for a transfer myself..."

()()()

"She said no?"

"Yes"

"She said yes?"

"No! she said no!" weren't you listening?

"I'm trying, Steve, believe me. But following your relationship with Kono is a bigger challenge than you might think..."

"From the beginning then, I asked her to marry me, last night, and she said no."

"I'm sorry"

"It's fine"

"How can it be fine?" Danny looks at his partner who looks unperturbed by the recent chain of events "aren't you disappointed?"

"I was at first. But it's fine now" Steve says offhandedly, turning the car carefully, and even uses the signals.

"Why?" Danny asks astonished

"Why am I not disappointed?"

"No" Danny looks at him exasperated "I don't give a fuck about your disappointment. I'm not sure your overinflated ego can recognize disappointment if it falls on you from the sky. Why did she say no?"

"She said she was too young to get married"

"And you didn't argue?"

"I did" Steve shrugs "at first. But then she reminded me that Mary Ann is the same age as her, and asked how I would react if Mary Ann came and told me she was getting married..."

"That's a good point" Danny says impressed.

"Yes. It is. It was very effective. I got up of bed and called Mary Ann to make sure she wasn't planning on doing something stupid like that" Steve admits.

"I'm sure she was thrilled"

"She was very descriptive when she explained what she's planning to do to me the next time she's in Hawaii..." Steve mumbles "the fact that she was able to describe it with so much details in the middle of the night is really quite disturbing..."

"So what now?" Danny asks, trying to block the image of Mary Ann beating the crap out of Steve, before it will reach a very unfriendly level.

"Now nothing" Steve says, stops at a cross walk and let some pedestrians cross the road with great patience, when the last of them stands on the other curb, he carefully looks around him before starting to go again. "She said, if I still want to marry her I can ask her later. When she's older".

"How much older?" Danny looks suspiciously at Steve and notices for the first time that the speed dial did not go over 40 miles per hour the entire ride.

"She said something about being fifty..." Steve shrugs. "But I will probably try again earlier. Maybe forty..."

They reach HQ, and Steve is parking the car carefully, making sure no one is walking close by, and keeps the car straight and in alignment with the markings on the ground.

They get out of the car and walk towards the building, when Danny stops and looks at Steve with amazement.

"She's pregnant!" he shouts.

"Keep quiet!" Steve shoves him forcefully into the elevator "you're not supposed to know about it" he looks around them and pushes the elevator's buttons "how did you know?" he looks at his partner curiously.

"Your driving..." Danny mumbles still looking at Steve as if he grown another head "I have never seen you drive so carefully..."

Steve just stands there smiling happily at Danny.

"This is why you don't mind she doesn't want to get married. Because you knocked her up!" Danny looks at Steve who is practically beaming with excitement. "God help us!" Danny rolls his eyes as the elevator's doors open "another one of you, and with Kono's hard head in the mix. It's a fucking nightmare..."

When they go inside HQ, they see Kono carries an enormous pile of lenses and electronic devices. She balances them on one hand and knee as she try to open the door with the other hand.

"Hold on, babe" Danny is running to help her "let me take this" he relieves her from her burden "you shouldn't be doing stuff like that" he tells her with alarm "sit there, we'll carry that for you..."

She looks at Danny with a questioning look, until she notices Steve standing behind him.

"You told him!" she points her finger towards her boyfriend. "You promised you wouldn't! It took you what? twelve hours to run up and tell him?" she glares at the both of them in irritation "this is really inappropriate, Steve" she walks furiously towards her office "I should have known. I should have known you would never keep secrets from _your wife_..."

Yeah. That's great. Hopefully, it's all hormones... but he's a super SEAL right? potentially he should be able to survive nine months of this...


End file.
